SUSAN JEFFREYS’ Radio Week

The Food Programme

SUNDAY, 12.30PM, RADIO 4 (FM) Jamie Oliver, who has done his level best to improve the nation’s diet, talks to Sheila Dillon about the ups and downs of his career in this first of a two-part series.

The Years That

Changed Britain Forever

SUNDAY, 9PM, RADIO 2 Richard Littlejohn continues his fascinating series with a look at 1992, a year that paved the way for Labour’s landslide election win in 1997 and saw Britpop taking over the charts.

The Country Girls

MONDAY-FRIDAY, 10.45AM, 7.45PM, RADIO 4 The hens are laying eggs, the butter is cooling in the kitchen and the countryside is full of flowers, but Kate and Baba long to escape to another life in this ten-part adaptation of Edna O’Brien’s hit novel.

Heartburn

MONDAY-FRIDAY, 12.04PM, 10.45PM, RADIO 4 When Nora Ephron’s husband, the investigative journalist Carl Bernstein, had an affair with Margaret Jay, the daughter of the British Prime Minister, James Callaghan, Nora was heartbroken. Then, she dried her eyes and wrote this blistering, bestselling act of revenge.

Mastertapes

WEDNESDAY, 4PM, RADIO 4 Lily Allen’s life fell to pieces as her music career flourished. She talks to John Wilson about this dark time, answers questions from a studio audience, and plays acoustic versions of tracks from her latest album.

BBC Proms 2019

THURSDAY, 7.30PM, RADIO 3 The ghost of Jacqueline du Pre hovers over Elgar’s emotionally charged Cello Concerto, but the brilliant young cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason will bring his own energy to the work at the Royal Albert Hall.

Friday Night Is Music Night

FRIDAY, 8PM, RADIO 2 Heather Small, Tommy Blaize, Tony Momrelle, the BBC Concert Orchestra and some elite backing singers get the audience up on their feet and dancing in this cracking concert of Motown hits.

ARCHERS UPDATE

None of us has had so much as a glimpse of a Gill since this reclusive family moved in to Home Farm and tore Jennifer’s dream kitchen to bits. You’d expect them to have at least have been seen, however fleetingly, but the dark force currently controlling Ambridge has other fish to fry – pitching for Peggy’s pelf has got half the villagers at each other’s throats, while the rest of Ambridge gets sucked into whirlpool of Grundy doom. Meanwhile, Jim does his best to cope with past traumas, Emma becomes increasingly erratic, Phoebe – lately come from the outside world – gets her own drama started, Brian is deeply disturbed by a letter from Jennifer and Lynda finds her latest protege has an odd way of showing gratitude.