TODAY’S RADIO

DEVOTED 2.15PM, RADIO 4 ★★★★

Ray Connolly, the writer and Beatles biographer, spent six months in hospital with Covid-19. He was put into a coma and had two heart attacks, pneumonia, kidney problems and hallucinations. Every day, his wife, Plum, sent detailed emails to their children about his condition. This play, written by Ray and starring Alison Steadman and Philip Jackson, is about

Ray’s journey to recovery and the NHS staff who saved his life.

COSTING THE EARTH 3.30PM, RADIO 4 ★★★

In the early weeks of lockdown, the skies emptied of planes, the roads grew quiet and the sound of birdsong filled city streets. Now that the world is waking up again, Tom Heap hears from an air quality expert and a psychologist about how humans and wildlife have been changed by the pandemic.

THE NAZI NEXT DOOR 8PM, RADIO 4 ★★★★

‘Mr Stan’, as he was known in his village, handed out plums and apples from his fruit trees, and was a regular churchgoer. Many of his neighbours, however, remember Stan as a nasty man with an evil temper. Stanislaw Chrzanowski came to the UK after the Second World War, settling in the Midlands. His stepson,

John, became suspicious about Stan’s past, and was convinced his brutal stepfather had been a torturer and executioner for the Nazis. Nick Southall tells the remarkable story.

THE CLASSIC FM CONCERT 8PM, CLASSIC FM ★★★

Fritz Kreisler wrote Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow) in the style of a Viennese waltz. It’s a piece full of charm and very much of its period, in the right sort of way. John Suchet includes a new recording of the work, with Charlie Slem on violin, in this evening’s show. SJ

Alison Steadman (2.15pm, R4)