TODAY’S RADIO

WITNESS 9.30AM, RADIO 4

★★★★ Ruth Harkness was a New York socialite who got it into her head to catch a panda and bring it back to America. She flew to Shanghai in 1936 and, with a Chinese-american guide who became her lover, set off to the mountains. Somehow – Ruth was vague on the details – they came back with a panda cub, which Ruth fed from a bottle. She returned to the US and, for some weeks, kept the cub in her apartment, then sold it to a Chicago zoo. This is the story of that dubious enterprise.

COSTING THE EARTH 3.30PM, RADIO 4 ★★★

Russian oil and gas comes with a heavy price, of blood and money. The West, desperate

to free itself from Putin’s Kremlin, is looking at coal and ageing nuclear power stations as fuel options. Tom Heap asks if there is a green way out of this energy crisis.

THE CLASSIC FM CONCERT 8PM, CLASSIC FM

Jan Lisiecki, the Canadian pianist, is 27 tomorrow. Jan, who began playing the piano at the age of five, now performs at least

100 concerts a year, and is rightly considered a bit of a keyboard genius. John Suchet marks his birthday by featuring a recording of Jan playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 1.

BAD APPLES 8PM, RADIO 4

★★★★

Cara Mcgoogan hears from policewomen who have been bullied, harassed, emotionally abused and sexually assaulted, not only in their line of duty – but also by their fellow officers. This is not a matter of a ‘few bad apples’, according to the former Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police, Sue Fish, but a major, nationwide problem within our police forces. SJ

Jan Lisiecki (8pm, Classic FM)