Radio choice Pete Naughton

Planks and a Passion

RADIO 4, 11.30AM

The Bridge Theatre, the first large-scale commercial theatre to be built in London for 80 years, opens this week. In this lively, artfullymade documentary, broadcaster and theatre critic Libby Purves charts the story of the theatre’s creation – from a mischievous twinkle in the eye of its co-founder and director Nicholas Hytner to a major architectural project involving leading-edge acousticians, designers and engineers from around the UK, through to its presence in the shadow of Tower Bridge today.

Late Junction

RADIO 3, 11.00PM

One of England’s great musical eccentrics, Robert Wyatt, invites Verity Sharp into his Lincolnshire home for this special edition of

Late Junction. It promises wonderful music, drawn from Wyatt’s huge collection, as well as

reflections on his own musical career – which began with a stint as the drummer in the rock-jazz band Soft Machine, but took a sharp left turn in 1973 when an accident left him paralysed from the waist down. Listen out, too, for his stories about touring with Hendrix and drinking with Robert Graves.