TODAY’S RADIO

CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY 2.15PM, RADIO 4

★★★★

Carys (Barbara Flynn) finds getting old very depressing, but there’s one thing that really cheers her up: Christmas. In fact, she enjoys Christmas so much that she does her best to celebrate it all year round. Carys particularly likes Christmas movies, but watching Elf over and over again is beginning to drive the rest of her family round the bend.

LEMN SISSAY’S POETRY REBELS 7PM, RADIO 4 ★★★★

In his continuing series on poets, Lemn Sissay focuses on the 1970s. He recalls performing with punks, hears from Attila The Stockbroker about skirmishing with skinheads, and learns how writing poetry against racism was a matter of life and death for Benjamin Zephaniah.

THE CLASSIC FM CONCERT 8PM, CLASSIC FM ★★★

John Suchet gives us a medley of Renaissance carols arranged by Peter Warlock in this festive music selection. The carol It Came Upon The Midnight Clear is also on the bill, plus The Sixteen singing music from Bach’s Christmas

Oratorio. A contemporary work called Winter Arrives, by Helen Habershon, closes the show.

GREAT LIVES 11PM, RADIO 4

★★★★

J.R.R. Tolkien, creator of The Hobbit, was born in South Africa, but came to England with his mother for a long visit when he was three. His father died in their absence and, by the time he was 12, Tolkien was an orphan. He served in France in the First World War and fought at the Somme. The war and the bravery of the men who served under him had a profound effect on Tolkien, and echoes of the war resonate throughout his work. The historian Niall Ferguson explains to Matthew Parris why the quiet, scholarly Tolkien should be considered a great man.

Barbara Flynn (2.15pm, Radio 4)