today’s radio

IN OUR TIME

9AM, 9.30PM, RADIO 4 HHHH When he was three years old, Carl Friedrich Gauss pulled himself up to a table, looked at a sum his father had been doing – and corrected it. Carl, who was born to a poor family, was soon amazing everyone with the speed of his mental arithmetic. His brilliance attracted a wealthy patron who paid for the prodigy’s education. Carl’s mathematical abilities had a very practical side as he found a way of sending signals along a wire, creating the world’s first electromagnetic telegraph. Melvyn Bragg joins mathematicians and physicists to discuss Gauss’s mighty mind and lasting legacy.

I CAPTURE THE CASTLE

10AM, 3PM, RADIO 4 EXTRA HHHH Cassandra Mortmain (Holliday

Holliday Grainger (10am, 4 Extra) Grainger) lives in a decaying castle in Suffolk with the rest of her eccentric family. Her father, a writer, hasn’t produced a book for years, the rooms are chilly, the roof leaks and the Mortmains are always hungry. This two-part adaptation of Dodie Smith’s muchloved comedy romance begins today and concludes tomorrow.

CROSSING CONTINENTS

11AM, RADIO 4 HHH

In October of last year, Bulgarian parents stormed into schools, taking out their children and the children of neighbours. They had been thrown into a state of panic by a fake news story that made them think their children were to be stolen by Norwegians. Tim Whewell investigates the roots of this hysteria.

OPEN COUNTRY

3PM, RADIO 4 HHH

The natural history presenter and author Brett Westwood lives in an urban area of the West Midlands, but his garden is filled with the sounds of nature. Today, he shares recent recordings of all the tweets, trills and chirpings that have delighted him this spring. SJ