TODAY’S RADIO

NATURAL HISTORIES 6.35AM, RADIO 4

★★★

Willow trees, in folk songs, bend and whisper, console the heartbroken and, sometimes, witness terrible deeds. This morning, Brett Westwood celebrates the tree that has inspired poems, songs and paintings. Brett also hears how willow can be extremely useful when it comes to making brooms, bats and whistles, and for wearing round your hat when your true love is far, far away.

BETWEEN THE EARS 6.45PM, RADIO 3 ★★★

Driven from his home in Ethiopia by Mussolini, Emperor Haile Selassie spent the years between 1936 and 1941 in exile in Bath. He bought a house there, which he later donated to the city as a

Haile Selassie (6.45pm, Radio 3) home for the elderly. While staying in Bath, he brought a pianola – an instrument that can be played like a piano but also, thanks to piano rolls, plays automatically. This evening, we hear about the Emperor’s time in Bath, and some of the ragtime, jazz and classical music that lifted his exiled heart.

SUNDAY NIGHT IS MUSIC NIGHT 7PM, RADIO 2

★★★★

The BBC Concert Orchestra plays music for heroes and villains in this recorded show from the King’s Lynn Festival. Robin Hood, Batman, Spartacus, Lawrence of Arabia, Don Giovanni and Captain Jack Sparrow all get a look-in.

FROM COUCH TO OPERA HOUSE 9PM, CLASSIC FM ★★★

Opera is big, loud and off-putting; it’s also sublime, heartbreaking and uplifting. Over the past few weeks, Jennifer Saunders has been presenting this series that aims to turn the opera-wary into opera fans. In tonight’s show, Jennifer looks at comedy in opera, picking music from HMS Pinafore, and featuring a rare moment of comic relief in that great operatic tearjerker, La Traviata.