TODAY’S RADIO

MARK FORREST

10AM, SCALA RADIO ★★★ Scottish crime writer Val Mcdermid has a new thriller out. It’s called 1979, and follows news reporter Allie Burns as she gets her first big scoop – and uncovers a home-grown terrorist plot along the way.

39 WAYS TO SAVE THE PLANET 1.45PM, RADIO 4 ★★★

You live in an old house that has lots of appealing features, but the heat leaks out of the charming windows and draughts come in through the doors. What do you do if you want to do your bit to save the planet and bring down your heating bills? Here, Tom Heap meets a team who retrofit modern technology and insulation in old houses without destroying their character.

Phil Hammond (6.30pm, Radio 4)

DR PHIL’S BEDSIDE MANNER 6.30PM, RADIO 4 ★★★★

Describing himself as a big, red-haired magpie, the doctor and comedian Phil Hammond swoops in on hospitals in the UK, picking up anecdotes of life in the NHS. In this first of a new series, he visits an Edinburgh hospital to hear how patients and staff get themselves and each other through the day. The programme ends with Phil performing a stand-up routine and, though the format is a bit messy, the stories are good and it’s a show with its heart in the right place.

BBC PROMS 2021

7.30PM, RADIO 3 ★★★★ Beethoven wrote his Second Symphony as he started to lose his hearing. His anxiety about this can be felt in the music, with the fourth movement opening with a groan of pain. There’s a dark energy to the work, as you can hear in this live concert – but there are also lyrical and lovely pastoral passages. It will be performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under guest conductor Ilan Volkov. SJ