TODAY’S RADIO

THE LOST SOUNDS ORCHESTRA

11.30AM, RADIO 4 HHH

It was thought that Thomas Edison was the first person to record the human voice, in 1877, but an 1860 recording by France’s Edouard-leon Scott de Martinville has emerged of someone singing Au Clair De La Lune. Mary-ann Ochota tells the story in a programme of lost sounds, which includes a reconstruction of the sound of a tyrannosaurus rex and the bustle of 1920s New York.

RAMBLINGS

3PM, RADIO 4 HHHH Anneka Rice admits to having developed ‘a bit of a crush’ on Clare Balding when she saw Clare walking backwards on the Thames Path near Barnes. The two of them meet up to walk forwards along the river, and Clare explains why she took up walking backwards. As they walk along, they talk about art, career changes and peering in through other people’s windows.

BOOKCLUB

3.30PM, RADIO 4 HHHH Tana French’s bestselling 2018 novel The Wych Elm is about a privileged and confident young man who gets caught up in events that turn him into a haggard wreck with dark secrets. Tana, who is also the author of the Dublin Murder Squad series, joins James Naughtie to talk about the book, and to reveal why she felt it was time to take a change of direction with her fiction.

THE CLASSIC FM CONCERT

8PM, CLASSIC FM HHH

John Suchet is marking Make A Friend Day with a selection of music by composers whose work was influenced by their musical friends. Haydn, Holst and Ravel are on a bill that also includes Gershwin’s Overture for Girl Crazy – the 1930 musical that gave Ethel Merman her stage debut and made Ginger Rogers an overnight star. SJ

Anneka Rice (3pm, Radio 4)