TODAY’S RADIO

ESSENTIAL CLASSICS 9AM, RADIO 3

Astor Piazzolla had a love/hate relationship with the bandoneon. He composed some of his greatest works on the instrument, but often referred to this cumbersome member of the concertina family as his ‘coffin’. The tangos he wrote and played on the bandoneon brought him international fame – and much hostility from the tango purists of Buenos Aires. Here, Suzy Klein celebrates the centenary of Piazzolla’s birth and plays some of the composer’s inspired compositions, showing just how wrong the purists were.

RIGOROUS HISTORY: WOMEN VS HOLLYWOOD

9.45AM (FM), 12.30AM, RADIO 4 Mae West outwitted the censors who tried to get her to clean up her stage act. She got away with some racy material in her early films, but was in a constant battle of wills with the studios. She was one tough lady, however, and fought back hard against the Hollywood system. Helen O’hara tells Mae’s story in this third of a week-long series.

THE JUMP: COVID-19

11AM, RADIO 4 A pandemic was always going to happen. The virologist Wendy Barclay and the ecologist Kate Jones discuss how invasive human behaviour gives viruses multiple chances to jump from species to species, putting us all in danger.

THE FOLK SHOW 9PM, RADIO 2

Mark Radcliffe plays traditional folk and acoustic music tonight, and is joined by the acclaimed singer-songwriter and guitarist John Smith. John is a top-flight soloist who has also played on albums by Cara Dillon and Martin Simpson; he has toured the world with John Martyn, John Renbourn and Davy Graham, and has worked with the likes of David Gray and Joan Baez. SJ

Mae West (9.45am, Radio 4)