today’s radio

SHORT WORKS: 98’ 99’

3.45PM, RADIO 4 HHH

Spring is coming, and small shoots are growing up out of the strange soil of the Red Field. These are not the green signs of spring, though – these are guns. The writer Grahame Williams has created this intriguing, unsettling short work.

FRIDAY NIGHT IS MUSIC NIGHT

8PM, RADIO 2 HHHH

The music of David Bowie, with its extraordinary scope and inventiveness, lends itself to a full-on orchestral treatment. The BBC Concert Orchestra, at its full 60-piece strength, does just that tonight. Tony Vincent delivers the vocals, and there will be new symphonic arrangements of Bowie classics including Space Oddity, Life On Mars, Changes, Rebel Rebel and Under Pressure.

THE VERB

10PM, RADIO 3 HHH

You do not go into poetry – either writing or publishing it – to make money. Faber And Faber had a bit of luck when T.S. Eliot’s collection of poems about cats inspired a musical, but most of the time, it’s a labour of love. Despite this, little publishing houses, magazines and online enthusiasts still keep poetry alive. Ian Mcmillan hears from some of those who, one way or another, have made poetry their business.

THE ESSAY: BENEATH THE NIGHT

10.45PM, RADIO 3 HHHH

At the European Space Operations Centre in Germany, they have clocks that only tell Martian time. The place, as the astronomer Dr Stuart Clark tells us in this enthusiastic broadcast, really does feel like something out of science fiction. In this last of a week-long series, Dr Clark recalls being at the Centre when the Rosetta probe landed on a comet. He shares his excitement, as well as his pleasure that – thanks to the internet – millions of others saw the wonders he saw. SJ

David Bowie (8pm, Radio 2)