TODAY’S RADIO

Moving Pictures 1.30PM, RADIO 4

The painter Rachel Ruysch was born in 1664, and was the daughter of a professor of botany and anatomy. She spent many childhood hours painting specimens from her father’s collection, and developing an accurate, painstaking style. Her pictures remain extremely popular to this day. Here, Cathy FitzGerald gives a detailed account of one of Rachel’s exquisite paintings.

Johnnie Walker’s Sounds Of The 70s

3PM, RADIO 2

Jim Lea, of Slade, got so dispirited by the band’s lack of success that he started up another band called The Dummies as a side project. Then, as he tells Johnnie Walker, Slade finally got a number one hit. Elena Ferrante:

The Story Of A New Name 3PM, RADIO 4 (FM)

The Italian writer Elena Ferrante’s novels about two girls – Lila and Lena, who grew up in post-war Naples – have become international bestsellers since the first was published in 2011. In this twopart adaptation of the second of Ferrante’s four novels, Lila, a girl of great intelligence, has to give up her education and work for the family shoe business. Her marriage to the son of a murdered loan shark sets her on a road that takes her, in so many ways, away from her friend Lena. I, By The Tide Of Humber 4.30PM, RADIO 4

Taking the title from a line in a poem by Andrew Marvell, Sean O’Brien takes us on a tour of Hull – this year’s City of Culture. It’s a city, according to Sean, full of lost villages and green-eyed girls. Water is everywhere, and the promise of the sea is at the end of every street. Sean goes on a poetical walk through his old home town – including the ‘vast ecclesiastical conservatory’ that is Paragon Station – then explains why Hull has always been, to him, a city of culture. The Entirely Accurate Encyclopaedia Of Evolution 7.15PM, RADIO 4

The comedian Rob Newman presents this clever show – the second of a four-part series – that mixes stand-up and sketches.

Rob will take us on a funny but informative tour of some of Old Dame Nature’s many mysteries. SJ

Cultural Hull (4.30pm, Radio 4)