TODAY’S RADIO

Saturday Breakfast

8AM, RADIO 2

Benedict Allen – who has climbed volcanoes, trekked across deserts and journeyed by horse and camel through steppes – makes his way to the breakfast studio, where Ricky Wilson is sitting in for Dermot O’Leary. Benedict tells Ricky about his latest grand adventure – a UK theatre tour. Benedict will be regaling audiences with the unvarnished truth about his solo expedition to Papua New Guinea.

Alan And Mel’s Summer Escape

10AM, RADIO 2

It will be getting mighty crowded in Alan Carr and Melanie Sykes’s studio this morning as the cast members of Calendar Girls troop in to talk about the show’s autumn tour. Some of the crew of the raunchy charity fundraiser West End Bares will also be in the studio; all guests will keep their kit on throughout the broadcast.

Unmade Movies: Dennis Potter’s The White Hotel

2.30PM, RADIO 4 (FM)

This occasional series, which turns abandoned film scripts into radio dramas, adapts Dennis Potter’s unproduced screenplay of D.M. Thomas’s novel, The White Hotel. When the drama, starring AnneMarie Duff and Bill Paterson, finally gets under way after a long-winded introduction, it turns out to be heavy on the narrative and overreliant on sound effects. Somewhere along the way, Thomas’s fascinating book about sex, death, Fascism and premonition gets lost in the mix.

Tommies

9PM, RADIO 4

As ever, this First World War drama series – which draws on war diaries and eyewitness accounts – puts us in the middle of the action, while getting across a complex story through deft use of dialogue. This edition, set on June 30, 1916, is based on German documents detailing how a British signalling blunder contributed to the terrible death toll on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. A powerful piece of radio.

Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz

12 MIDNIGHT, RADIO 3

Roland Kirk was a jazz wonder. He could play many instruments, often at the same time. Geoffrey pays tribute to an eccentric genius. SJ

Anne-Marie Duff (2.30pm, R4)