BBC Radio Guide What’s on? – Your Guide to BBC Radio "What's on?" is an entertaining guide to current BBC radio programmes and gives you some background to the programmes. Did you know that you can listen to BBC radio online? BBC radio offers something for everyone. There are five main channels: BBC1 - The best new music BBC2 - Music and entertainment BBC3 - Classical, Jazz, World, Arts, Drama BBC4 - Intelligent speech BBC5 - Live news, live sport Just go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/ Desert Island Discs Desert Island Discs is one of Radio 4's most popular and enduring programmes. It was created in 1942 and has been regularly broadcast ever since. The format is simple: each week a guest is interviewed and invited to choose the eight records they would take with them to a desert island. They also choose a favourite book (excluding the Bible or other religious work and Shakespeare - these already on the desert island!) and a luxury which must be inanimate and have no practical use. Over the last few years, castaways have included Lord Healey, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer; the American actress Whoopi Goldberg; the German singer Thomas Quasthoff; Nobel prize winner, Professor Martin Evans; a solo yachtswoman, a countess and a KGB defector. Tune in and find out who this week's castaway is - and listen to their choice of http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr Seite 1 BBC Radio Guide Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols Celebrate the true spirit of Christmas with the "Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols" from the chapel of King's College, Cambridge. For many people, a long-standing Christmas tradition is listening to the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from the chapel of King's College, Cambridge. It takes place at 3pm (GMT) on December 24th and usually follows the same pattern every year, though one or two new carols may be included. By tradition, the service begins with a lone choirboy singing the first verse of the carol Once in royal David's city, unaccompanied. The choirboy is chosen only minutes before the performance, so tension is high! The King's College line-up of 16 boy choristers has stayed the same in number since 1440, and is boosted by the adult voices of King's College undergraduates. The first service was held on Christmas Eve 1918, weeks after the end of the Great War's four years of mass slaughter. Ten years later, the service was first broadcast on the radio. The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is heard on the radio all over the world by millions of listeners. If you want to attend in person, the service is open to the public and there are no tickets and no admission fee - but to guarantee getting a ticket, you would have to queue for up to two days! But why not enjoy this wonderful choral experience in your own home by tuning in to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve on Radio 4 at 1500 GMT. For more information, go to http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/events/chapel-services/nine-lessons.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/religion/pip/57z45/ Seite 2 BBC Radio Guide The CBeebies Did you know that the BBC also broadcasts radio programmes for children - the CBeebies? The programmes provide music, stories and activities for children under six years old and can be heard on Radio 7. If you teach young children, or you want to encourage your own children to listen to English, choose a suitable story from the CBeebies site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/stories/ Some of the stories and rhymes can also be printed so that you can use a text in class. And there are interactive activities with Online CBeebies and here you can also get print-outs and Grown-ups information - that is, background information on the activity. (NB Unfortunately, a few of the songs and cartoons can't be received in Germany.) Seite 3 BBC Radio Guide Woman's Hour The daily programme 'Woman's Hour' has become a radio classic - but don't be fooled, it's not only for women! October 7th 1946 saw the start of something which has developed into a British icon - Woman's Hour. It was a programme designed to celebrate, entertain and inform women. Woman's Hour now attracts an audience of about 2.7 million people throughout the week - and over 40% of the listeners are men! Woman's Hour is broadcast on Radio 4 from Monday to Friday between 10 and 11 am GMT. The presenters focus on topical subjects in the news, interviews with celebrities and discussions on topics ranging from law to fashion. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007qlvb Not only is there a daily programme to listen to, but you can also check out the Woman's Hour timeline - a slide-show history of great women, decade by decade, from 1900 to the present day. You can either listen to the commentary or, if you click on 'Print version', you can read it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/timeline/2000.shtml Seite 4 BBC Radio Guide Lord Peter Wimsey England is the birthplace of detective fiction. Even if you don't know the names of many of the authors, e.g. Elizabeth George, Conan Doyle, Colin Dexter, Agatha Christie and Ruth Rendell, their characters' names are probably familiar to you: ... ... Inspector Lynley, Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Morse, Miss Marple and Inspector Wexford. Another popular sleuth is Lord Peter Wimsey, created by Dorothy L. Sayers. When she started writing, in the 1920s, she was very short of money so she asked herself: What do people like to read about? She looked in various newspapers and found her answer: crime and the aristocracy. So, she combined these in the persona of Lord Peter Wimsey, an aristocratic private detective. Wimsey was brilliantly played on television and on the radio by the popular actor, Ian Carmichael (18 June 1920 - 5 February 2010). Ian would have been 90 this year and the BBC was planning a series of programmes to celebrate this, but sadly, Ian died in February and, as a tribute to him, Radio 4 extra will be broadcasting a selection of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. So, if you're a detective fan, watch out for Lord Peter Wimsey. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra/programmes/schedules/this_week/grid/ataglance Seite 5 BBC Radio Guide The Archers Do you know that the longest running soap opera in the world has been on air for nearly 60 years and remains one of the most listened to programmes on BBC radio? Described by the BBC as 'contemporary drama in a rural setting', 'The Archers' can claim to be the doyenne of radio drama. The series is set in a fictitious village called Ambridge in the county of Borsetshire, which is loosely based on the real counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire in England. Originally the programme’s aim was to help farmers increase food production after the Second World War when rationing was still in operation and in fact the Ministry of Agriculture gave advice to the programme makers. However, The Archers became very popular with city and country residents alike and although its focus remained on farming and country life, its main story lines appealed to a wide audience. It tells the story of the four generations of the Archer family and the other residents of the village. You soon become involved in the goings-on of the village and the friendships and rivalries between the characters. It deals with hard-hitting social issues such as rural poverty, drug use and suicide; it also introduces current issues such as sustainability, organic food and gay partnerships as well as more light- hearted issues such as the Flower and Produce Show, the Christmas pantomime and Pancake Day races. Although many of the original cast members have now died, there is an actor who has been there for the duration. June Spencer recently celebrated her 90th birthday and has played the central role of Peggy Archer (now Woolley), and recently she appeared on Desert Island Discs (see Network Teachers’ Club in November). From time to time celebrities appear on the programme in small cameo roles – amongst them have been Princess Margaret and Dame Judi Dench. If you want to find out more about The Archers before listening, then enjoy the special two-minute guide - a good way to find out more about the characters. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qpgr/features/about Otherwise go straight to the website to listen. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qpgr Seite 6 BBC Radio Guide Pick of the Week Imagine a box of chocolates where someone has carefully selected the most delicious and tasty samples for you to take pleasure in. You don’t have to do anything except sit back and enjoy what’s offered to you. Well, this is the idea of 'Pick of the Week' on Radio 4. This programme puts a selection of the highlights of the previous week from Radios 2, 3 and 4 and occasionally, the World Service. So what sort of things might you hear? Well, an extract from a quiz show, a lively interview with a politician, part of a play, a joke from a stand-up comedian, a report from a documentary, part of a book-reading or even an aria from an opera - anything that listeners have heard and thought is worth recommending to others.