TODAY’S RADIO

Ken Bruce

9.30AM, RADIO 2

Rick Astley is on Ken’s show this morning. He will be in the Radio 2 Piano Room for a live session of music from his new album, Beautiful Life. Rick worked on the album in his home studio, writing every song, playing every instrument and singing every note . ‘I was,’ as he puts it, ‘tinkering about with bits and pieces, and before you know it, I was making a new record.’

Brief Lives

2.15PM, RADIO 4

Frank Twist and Sarah Gold take time off from giving advice to the guilty and the innocent at their Manchester-based legal practice to go flat-hunting. While they are looking at a place, they witness a row between residents that becomes violent. Is it just a fallingout between neighbours, or is there something sinister going on in the block of flats?

Jo Whiley & Simon Mayo

5PM, RADIO 2

Eric Idle was a founding member of the Monty Python team, but that’s only a small part of his show business career. Eric’s written films and musicals, appeared in shows, plays and cartoons, and has written many a great song, including Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life. Eric joins Jo and Simon this afternoon to talk about his ‘sortabiography’ – it’s called, not surprisingly, Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life.

The Folk Show with Ricky Ross

8PM, RADIO 2

Rod Clements is on tonight’s show for a studio session and a chat.

Rod formed the folk rock group Lindisfarne back in 1968, has been part of the line-up in many of its incarnations, and rejoined the band in 2015. Rod has his own solo career, and worked with many other folk legends, including Pentangle, Bert Jansch and Kathryn Tickell. Ricky Ross will also have news of the second Manchester Folk Festival.

Ballads Of The Great War

9PM, RADIO 2

This collection of new songs about the First World War concentrates on the opening weeks of the war, when thousands of young men, thinking they were going on a great adventure, signed up

– and signed away their lives. SJ

Rick Astley (9.30am, Radio 2)