TODAY’S RADIO

ROOM 5 9AM, 9.30PM, RADIO 4

★★★★ ‘It’s like being trapped in a room with a terrifying creature.’ Helena Merriman has, in this six-part series, heard from people who have faced the grim ordeal of being called into a room and given a life-changing diagnosis. Now, in the last programme of the series, Helena recalls the moment she faced the same ordeal.

THE POLITICAL BUTTERFLY EFFECT 9.30AM, RADIO 4 ★★★★

Glass was broken, blood was spilt and a Labour MP was led away in handcuffs in a barroom brawl in the House of Commons in 2012. In the first of a new series on consequences in politics,

Jim Waterson wonders if this

punch-up started a chain of events that led to the UK voting for Brexit.

THE PENNY DREADFULS PRESENT: HADRIAN’S BEARD 2.15PM, RADIO 4

★★★★ Emperor Hadrian liked travelling to the far corners of the Roman Empire, and he liked building things. These twin interests came together when he arrived in the far north of Britain, and decided what the place really needed was a great big wall. Tony Gardner plays Hadrian, one of Rome’s few bearded Emperors, in this comedy drama about the way that the building of Hadrian’s Wall didn’t go entirely to plan.

FILE ON 4 8PM, RADIO 4

★★★★

Aged just 19, Tracy Felstead was accused of stealing £11,000 from the Post Office where she worked. She was arrested, tried and sent to Holloway Prison. Tracy was just one of the many innocent people whose lives were wrecked by the Post Office scandal. In this programme, she visits the now empty prison and recalls the terrible day she went to jail for a crime she did not commit.

Emperor Hadrian (2.15pm, R4)