RADIO CHOICE

EVA PERON (pictured) was the illegitimate child of a wealthy man, who later abandoned Eva’s mother and their children. Because of this, there is some confusion about the date of Eva’s birth. That confusion is mirrored, grotesquely, in the events after her death. Eva died from cancer, having tried to hide the seriousness of her illness from the public. In EVITA’S ODYSSEY (RADIO 4 EXTRA, 6.30AM, 1.30PM), Linda Pressly tells a grim tale of embalming, body-snatching and a weird doctor who specialised in ‘the art of death’.

WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE worked off his excess energy by chopping down trees or pounding the streets of London, saving fallen women. He was an enthusiastic — rather than skilful — wielder of the axe, nearly blinding himself with a flying wood chip,

and once almost killing one of his sons. In his continuing series, PRIME MINISTERS’ PROPS (RADIO 4, 9.30AM) David Cannadine considers how Gladstone’s axe became a powerful political metaphor.

A CUSTOMER comes into the eccentric Glasgow corner shop to buy a selection of space-themed confectionery. There’s a reason for this, which the customer is only too keen to share. Sanjeev Kohli and Donald McLeary’s enjoyable, oddball sitcom FAGS, MAGS & BAGS (RADIO 4, 11.30AM) returns for a new series.