today’s radio

THE FORUM

10AM, WORLD SERVICE HHH Ray Bradbury, whose works include Fahrenheit 451, was born 100 years ago this month. Rajan Datar celebrates the work of an internationally acclaimed and prolific writer who saw himself as an author of modern fables, full of strange creations, rather than as a science-fiction writer.

TALES FROM THE STAVE

11.30AM, RADIO 4 (FM) HHH My Fair Lady opened on Broadway in 1956, and was a hit from the start. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe had taken

George Bernard Shaw’s acerbic play about a Cockney flower girl and turned it into something far sweeter. Romantic songs such as On The Street Where You Live and

Scotty Mccreery (9pm, Radio 2)

I Could Have Danced All Night enchanted audiences, contrasting nicely with the sharper Just You Wait and With A Little Bit Of Luck. This programme has singers and music scholars looking at the original manuscript of an enduring musical and seeing how the score was altered, honed and added to before that first performance.

OPEN COUNTRY

3PM, RADIO 4 (FM) HHHH This spring, wildlife cameraman James Aldred watched a pair of great spotted woodpeckers feeding at his garden bird table. Now, we listen in as he follows their trail into a nearby wood and discovers why these birds were stoking up on protein-rich peanuts.

THE COUNTRY SHOW WITH BOB HARRIS

9PM, RADIO 2 HHHH Scotty Mccreery is one of Nashville’s young stars, but he doesn’t mind singing a bit of old-school country about brokenhearted dudes weeping into their beer about the gal they lost. Scotty had a sellout tour in the UK lined up. That’s had to be postponed, but tonight, Scotty gives his British fans a live session from his Nashville home. SJ