RADIO CHOICE

GEORGE JENNINGS took out a patent for a flush toilet in 1852, but Thomas Crapper (pictured) really got things going, supplying 30 newfangled lavatories to Sandringham for a right royal flush. In DID THE VICTORIANS RUIN THE WORLD? (RADIO 4, 9.30AM), Kat and Helen Arney hear how, before Crapper’s plumbing became all the rage, human waste was seen as a useful commodity and not simply something to be flushed away.

MARK KNIGHT was taken on a school trip to a museum and saw a painting that caught his imagination. It was a big painting, teeming with people, and Mark was entranced. He often returned to look at it, losing himself in the painting for hours on end. Then, one day, the painting was gone. Mark tells Anna

Freeman the whole story to begin a new series on the power of the arts, SKETCHES: STORIES OF ART AND PEOPLE (RADIO 4, 11.30AM).

PROMS performances of Verdi’s great Requiem Mass seem to have an extra resonance. The vastness of the Royal Albert Hall suits the scale of the music, and the concentration of the Proms audience brings a depth of understanding and emotion to the work. The London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra take us through this mighty work tonight in the BBC PROMS 2018 (RADIO 3, 7.30PM).