SUSAN JEFFREYS’ Radio Week

SOUL MUSIC

SATURDAY, 10.30AM, RADIO 4 ★★★★ The romantic song Some Enchanted Evening brings a tear to many an eye. As the new series on music that touches the soul continues, we hear memories of love and sorrow connected to this big number from the musical South Pacific.

MERCURY

SATURDAY, 8PM, RADIO 4 ★★★★ The Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury spent his early years in Zanzibar and Mumbai, and was closely connected to London’s Parsi Zoroastrian community. Sathnam Sanghera explores how Freddie’s roots had a big influence on his music.

MOIRA STUART MEETS...

SUNDAY, 9PM, CLASSIC FM ★★★★

Ed Sheeran played the cello as a child, sang in a church choir, and has a brother who is a composer. Ed tells Moira Stuart about his musical life, and chooses classical works that are important to him.

RADIO 3 IN CONCERT

MONDAY, 7.30PM, RADIO 3 ★★★★ Monday is St Cecilia’s Day, so the BBC Singers celebrate the patron saint of music with a concert dedicated to choirs everywhere as they start to sing again after being silenced by Covid.

THINGS FELL APART TUESDAY, 9AM, 9.30PM, RADIO 4

★★★★ Tammy Faye Bakker, the wife of a dodgy TV evangelist, made a brave move that changed her life and the lives of many others. Jon Ronson tells her story.

SAM HUGHES WEDNESDAY, 1PM, SCALA RADIO

★★★★

The choral group The Sixteen sing in beautiful harmony. The performers give a live session today of musical wonders that will send thrills down your spine.

THE EXPLODING LIBRARY

THURSDAY, 11.30AM, RADIO 4 ★★★★ Flann O’brien’s The Third Policeman is a comic masterpiece. Mark Watson, Josie Long and Daliso Chaponda throw themselves into O’brien’s mad yarn as they perform extracts from this surreal story of a crime – and unrequited love between a man and a bicycle.

ARCHERS UPDATE

Lynda prepares to meet royalty this week, but is royalty prepared to meet La Snell? Should we be alerting the Palace? Will she try to recruit some blue blood for her Ambridge Mysteries? And should Lynda really be putting her trust in Chelsea, giving Lilian the chance to have the last laugh? While we brood on these matters, Ed steadies himself to take over the running of the various ramshackle Grundy enterprises so that Eddie and Clarrie get through the whole wedding vows renewal shindig and second honeymoon without a hitch. Good luck with that. Meanwhile, Oliver ruffles Grange Farm feathers, and Josh has to bite his tongue.