RADIO CHOICE

WHEN Dylan Thomas was in New York in 1953, he went on a whisky-fuelled bender, becoming seriously ill. He was given morphine injections, and went into a coma from which he never recovered. In this first of a week-long series DEATHS OF THE POETS (RADIO 4, 9.45AM (FM), 12.30AM), Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts take a look at Thomas’s last days, and also at the miserable death of the impoverished young poet Thomas Chatterton, who took a lethal dose of arsenic.

HOST Nicholas Parsons (pictured), 93 years young, returns for his incredible 50th year and the 77th series of the award-winning panel show JUST A MINUTE (RADIO 4, 6.30PM). How Nicholas hasn’t received a knighthood for services to radio is a mystery. His

guests on the first show are Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence, Zoe Lyons and Graham Norton.

THE JAFFA CAKE. Is it a cake? Is it a biscuit? Biscuit? Cake? The arguments have raged since Jaffas first appeared in British shops in 1927. The matter was even debated in a 1991 VAT tribunal to clarify whether they should be taxed as cakes or biscuits. For THE PHILOSOPHER’S ARMS (RADIO 4, 8PM) Matthew Sweet gathers together various cooks and eggheads, to thrash the matter out, once and for all.