RADIO CHOICE

THE SS Dundalk, an Irish steamer returning from Liverpool, was torpedoed by a German U-boat in October 1918, without warning. The steamer split in two, sending 19 of those on board to their deaths in the cold sea. Today’s instalment of the First World War drama HOME FRONT (RADIO 4, 12.04PM) includes an account of that tragedy. RAY DAVIES (pictured), the singer, songwriter, author and front man of The Kinks — whose big hits include Days, Waterloo Sunset and that exuberant, gender-bending masterpiece Lola — has been busy on a number of new projects. He tells JOOLS HOLLAND (RADIO 2, 9PM) all about them tonight, then joins Mr Holland at the piano for a session of new and old hits.

MELMOTH The Wanderer is a 19th-century Gothic novel about a pact with the

Devil and the search for truth. Sarah Perry, author of the bestseller The Essex Serpent, has taken this labyrinthine tale and set it in contemporary Europe. Helen Franklin, an Englishwoman working in Prague as a translator, lives a quiet and constrained life, suppressing something dark in her past. Walking through the city one evening, she sees one of the few friends she has in Prague. He looks terrified — and with good reason. Greta Scacchi and Anton Lesser are the narrators for the spooky, ten-part series MELMOTH (RADIO 4, 10.45PM).