TODAY’S RADIO

Out Of Line

11.30AM, RADIO 4 (FM)

A horizontal line on a sign is a pretty clear signal that entry is forbidden, but is that something we’ve learned, or does that stripe speak to some hard-wiring in our brains? The designer Teresa Monachino looks at the power of the stripe in art and history.

Bookclub

3.30PM, RADIO 4 (FM)

Styal Prison in Cheshire is a women’s prison, which has a mother and baby unit. They have a reading group there, and members have been discussing

The Lives Of Others by Neel Mukherjee, a book about poverty, crime and despair in Calcutta. James Naughtie and Neel visit Styal to talk about the book with the group.

Marc Almond’s Torch Song Trilogy

9PM, RADIO 2

‘My man don’t love me no more,’ sings Libby Holman on her 1929 recording of Moanin’ Low. Marc Almond includes the song in this first of a three-part series about torch songs and torch song singers. Torch songs are usually sung by women, and are always about some brokenhearted soul, keeping alive the flame of unrequited love. Marc features music from Marlene Dietrich, Edith Piaf and Billie Holiday, as well as selecting some lesser-known tearfilled tracks. Get out your hankies and have yourselves a good musical wallow, then dry your eyes and get ready to face the world again.

The Killers

10PM, RADIO 3

Two men arrive at a diner, where they plan to serve death to one of the regular customers. They argue about what they are going to eat, then decide to pay a house call on their victim. Adam Smith looks at a short story by Ernest Hemingway that was made into two very different films. One, made in 1946, starred Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner, and the other, made in 1964, starred Ronald Reagan.

The Essay:

Five Screen Goddesses

10.45PM, RADIO 3

In this instalment of her series on great female film stars of the 1930s and 1940s, Sarah Churchwell considers the ‘tough dame’ persona of Barbara Stanwyck. SJ