today’s radio

THE PATCH

9AM, RADIO 4 HHH

There are a lot of dogs in Torry, Aberdeen, and many of their owners are regulars at Fat Cat Pets. Anna, who runs the shop, takes photos of the dogs and their owners, and puts them up on the wall. The shop is small, cheerful and friendly, but Anna is worried – some of the regular customers have disappeared, killed by fake prescription drugs. Polly Weston calls in to the shop, where she hears a desperate true-life tale.

TIME SPANNER

6.30PM, RADIO 4 HHHH

David Mitchell plays Dan, a power-hungry reality TV star, in this bizarre time-travel adventure. Dan will stop at nothing to get his grasping hands on the most

David Mitchell (6.30pm, Radio 4) powerful tool in the universe: a time spanner. Unfortunately, the spanner is currently stuck up the nose of Martin Gaye, who is torn between saving the universe or going back in time to re-meet the love of his life. Lots of good lines and gags in this one-off repeat, but the plot’s got lost somewhere in space-time.

RADIO 3 IN CONCERT

7.30PM, RADIO 3 HHH Richard Strauss’s bold, triumphant Also Sprach Zarathustra added another dimension to Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The work opens this concert, given by the BBC Philharmonic, from Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall.

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME

8PM, RADIO 4 HHH

For the past 40 years, they’ve been running a form of basic income scheme in Alaska, with every permanent resident getting a share of the state’s profit from oil production. This scheme has worked reasonably well, but over the past three years, as we hear this evening, an unresolved crisis has led to trouble. SJ