RADIO CHOICE

TREPANNING involves drilling a hole in the head, and has been practised since Neolithic times. OUT OF THE ORDINARY (RADIO 4, 11AM) joins Jolyon Jenkins as he meets keen trepanners who feel that the operation expands consciousness, releases toxins implicated in dementia and allows more blood into the brain — and who want to have the procedure carried out legally here in the UK.

THE young RussianBritish violinist Alina Ibragimova (pictured) performed with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra when she was six. She came to London when she was ten after her father became principal double bass player with the London Symphony Orchestra. Alina’s musical career continued to flourish, and in tonight’s RADIO 3 IN CONCERT (7.30PM) you can hear her playing

Schumann’s Violin Concerto. It is a beautiful piece, but is surrounded by strange tales of death and spirit voices.

THE 19th-century poet and dandy Gerard de Nerval cut a bit of a dash by walking with his pet lobster through the parks of Paris. In the last of his series on the history of human peacocks, THE ESSAY: WALKING THE LOBSTER (RADIO 3, 10.45PM), John Walsh talks about Nerval and describes the outrageous outfits of macaronis, who minced through the streets of 18thcentury London in towering wigs, high-waisted trousers and enormous cravats.