RADIO CHOICE

THE archive comedy show MARKING MONKHOUSE: FLETCHER’S FARE (RADIO 4 EXTRA, 8.30AM, 12.30PM, 7.30PM) — first broadcast in 1953 — is from a series of sketches and music written by and starring Bob Monkhouse. It’s being broadcast in the week of what would have been Monkhouse’s 90th birthday, by way of a tribute to the late comedy genius (pictured).

IAN MCKELLEN, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry, Alfred Molina, Alex Jennings and Martin Jarvis star in this first of a new series of clever comedy sketches, MICHAEL FRAYN’S POCKET PLAYHOUSE, (RADIO 4, 11.30AM) written by the acclaimed novelist Michael Frayn.

The marriage between Antonina Miliukova and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was short and miserable.

Antonina adored her husband, and would have had no understanding of his homosexuality. They parted after six weeks, leaving Antonina bewildered and the composer in despair. That despair can be heard in Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, on RADIO 3 IN CONCERT (7.30PM).

GARY DAVIES serves up another helping of classic floor-fillers and forgotten gems for SOUNDS OF THE 80S (RADIO 2, 10PM) finishing with what he calls ‘the sloppy bit’, featuring one of those big, tearjerking power ballads . . .