RADIO CHOICE

MANUEL CUEVAS was a genius with needle and thread. He left Mexico for Los Angeles and worked for a tailor. Before long, Manuel (pictured) was making suits for the stars. His clients included Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and John Lennon — and when Johnny Cash ordered nine suits for a tour, Cuevas insisted they all be black. For this week’s edition of I WAS . . . (RADIO 4, 11.30AM), Manuel tells Andrew McGibbon how he turned Cash into the Man In Black.

FOR her latest series of RAMBLINGS (RADIO 4, 3PM), Clare Balding has been walking the Nidderdale Way in North Yorkshire. A 53-mile circular footpath that runs round the valley of the River Nidd, the walk takes in lakes and reservoirs, ancient churches and gorges. Today, Clare joins the Tordoffs, a local family, for a

comparatively easy but very pretty walk between Bewerley and Dacre Banks.

BRANWELL BRONTE was a bit of a loose cannon. Like his sisters, Charlotte, Anne and Emily, he was talented and imaginative. He’d been educated at home to a high degree by his father, then got a job as a railway clerk. Branwell, who took to drink and drugs, left the railway under a cloud; an affair with a married woman further tarnished his reputation. Emma Butcher marks the 200th anniversary of Branwell’s birth in tonight’s FREE THINKING (RADIO 3, 10PM).