TODAY’S RADIO

WRITING – THE MIDLANDS

9AM, 7PM, R4 EXTRA ★★★★

The crime writer Mark Billingham – best-known for his Tom Thorne novels – was born in Solihull and here, he returns to the Midlands to explore its literary heritage and future. He meets some of the region’s most exciting writers at work today – among them the novelist Kit de Waal and the poet (and professional boxer) Matt Windle – and visits some of the local landmarks that inspired him and so many others.

GRAHAM NORTON

10AM, RADIO 2 ★★★

Tom Baker, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Pam Ayres and Lady Glenconner are among the celebrities featured in this round-up of the best of the guests of 2019.

PUCKOON

2.30PM, RADIO 4 ★★★★★

Dan Milligan is the lazy hero of Spike Milligan’s only full-length novel. Dan is so lazy that Spike once said he had great difficulty getting his imaginary character to leave the house. Set in Ireland in 1924, as the boundary is drawn up between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, the book explores the surreal, ridiculous situations that were created by this artificial border. Ed Byrne, Pauline Mclynn and Jane Milligan star in this dramatisation of that book, with the excellent Barry Cryer as the narrator.

AROUND THE PIANO WITH TOM ODELL

9PM, RADIO 2 ★★★★

For six months in the early 1970s, Billy Joel played piano in an LA lounge bar. He worked under an assumed name because of contractual problems, and later used his experiences as material for his hit song Piano Man. Tom Odell talks to Billy Joel himself about this and other revealing episodes from his life and career as they sit around the piano at the BBC’S Maida Vale studio. SJ

Musician Billy Joel (9pm, Radio 2)