TODAY’S RADIO

RADCLIFFE & MACONIE 8AM, BBC 6 MUSIC

★★★★ Julia Donaldson, the author of

The Gruffalo and Stick Man, is on Mark and Stuart’s programme this morning. It will be a bit of a children’s book special, with Mark and Stuart playing tracks relating to favourite works and Julia talking her new story, Mole’s Spectacles.

39 WAYS TO SAVE THE PLANET 2.45PM, RADIO 4 ★★★

Fixing a broken wind turbine is no easy task, especially if it’s offshore. Now, developers in robotics and artificial intelligence have got together to develop the Bladebug. This device, which is the size of a suitcase, can cling to a turbine’s blade and then check, clean and even repair it. Tom Heap meets the experts behind these robots, and reports on a development

that could make Britain’s offshore wind farms cheaper and safer.

A LEAP IN THE DARK 3PM, RADIO 4

★★★★

The actor-manager Nigel Playfair was appalled when the idea of putting plays on the ‘wireless’ was put forward in 1922. How could anyone, he wondered, concentrate on a drama while their servants rushed in and out and the doorbell clanged all day? Nigel soon changed his tune when he heard that the job of bringing drama to radio would be offered to his rival, Noel Coward. This comedy drama follows Nigel Playfair (Alex Jennings) as – suddenly full of enthusiasm – he throws himself into creating radio plays.

JTOZ 5PM, RADIO 3

★★★★

In 1961, tuba player Alan Jaffe took over the management of Preservation Hall in New Orleans. He employed – and played with – a house band whose original members had been part of the Roaring Twenties jazz scene. Ben Jaffe took up his father’s baton and the band, as you can hear today, has kept its trad jazz legacy alive and stomping.

Alex Jennings (3pm, Radio 4)