RADIO CHOICE

A PALE stranger tries to engage another man in conversation. That man, absorbed in a map on his phone, is rude to the stranger — and comes to regret it — in SHORT WORKS: A FIGURE OF SPEECH (RADIO 4, 3.45PM), a supernatural short story, written and narrated by Will Self.

JAN RAVENS and Jon Culshaw head a team of sharp impressionists who have been polishing up their mimicry skills — and getting some new voices into their repertoire — for the return of the satirical impressions show DEAD RINGERS (RADIO 4, 6.30PM).

THE children’s TV presenter Barney Harwood is joined by Bafta-winning naturalist Steve Backshall (pictured) to host FRIDAY NIGHT IS MUSIC NIGHT (RADIO 2, 8PM) from the Watford Colosseum. The BBC Concert Orchestra will

perform classical music and scores from films, shows and musicals inspired by children’s animal stories, including Chicken Run, The Lion King and Jurassic Park.

IS HYPNOTISM just a bit of stage magic, or a real phenomenon that could play a big part in mainstream medicine? CROWDSCIENCE: DOES HYPNOSIS REALLY WORK? (BBC WORLD SERVICE, 8.30PM) features a magicianturned-neuroscientist, an arachnophobe and a patient about to undergo a tooth extraction as it attempts to find out.