TODAY’S RADIO

PIRANESI 12.04PM, 10.45PM, RADIO 4

★★★★ Piranesi, a strange character, lives in a vast labyrinth of halls filled with statues. Tides thunder up the staircases, and clouds drift through the upper halls. Piranesi believes he’s lived alone in this strange place ‘since time began’ – but now, mysterious chalk marks appear in the halls, and Piranesi wonders if others share his home. Susanna Clarke’s latest novel, in all its surreal glory, is narrated by Samuel Anderson.

BELIEVE ME 2PM, RADIO 4 EXTRA

★★★★ Eddie Izzard, the actor, comedian, marathon runner and charity fundraiser, is 60 years old today. Radio 4 Extra marks the event with this five-part daily series that has Eddie talking about

childhood, dyslexia, grief and not quite fitting into any boxes.

SIEGE 2.15PM, RADIO 4

★★★★

A skinny man wearing a Spider-man mask stands by the till in a supermarket. The other customers hardly notice him – until he pulls out a gun.

This five-part drama, written by Katherine Jakeways, Eno Mfon and Darragh Mortell, tells the story of the siege through the voices of those caught up in an event that will change their lives.

THE ESSAY: THE FROZEN RIVER 10.45PM, RADIO 3

★★★★ The River Dee rises from a 4,000ft-high plateau in the Cairngorms; this is the highest source of any major river in Britain. The Dee flows from

the plateau through areas of dramatic beauty, before it reaches the North Sea. Director Rob Petit and the writer Robert Macfarlane set out to film the river’s source, but, as we hear tonight, the project led them into the mists of altered realities, ghosts and loss.

SJ

Eddie Izzard (2pm, Radio 4 Extra)