TODAY’S RADIO

THE FORUM: VINCENT VAN GOGH: THE STRUGGLING ARTIST 10AM, WORLD SERVICE

★★★★ Vincent Van Gogh was a difficult man, but his work is sublime. Bridget Kendall talks to experts from Amsterdam about his work and the mystery of his death. You will get an insight into the painter’s life and work, as well as a chance to hear his name pronounced properly – the Dutch way.

SCALA RADIO BOOK CLUB 10.30AM, SCALA RADIO ★★★

It’s the spring of 1907, and there is a whiff of anarchy in the London air. The Fifth Congress of the Russian Communist

Party is being held in Hackney, and everyone is at each other’s throats. While this is all going on, a young Stalin builds his own power base, making alliances

with Lenin and Trotsky. The author Stephen May joins Mark Forrest to talk about his latest novel, Sell Us The Rope, set in a seething, febrile world of plots, schisms and revolution.

BANDING 11.30AM, RADIO 4

★★★★ Collieries and coal mines used to have their own flourishing brass bands; now, Britain’s coal industry has all but disappeared, but the music lives on. Martin Green hears how brass players have dug in to halt the decline of this great music tradition, and learns about the importance of brass bands in people’s lives.

CRAIG CHARLES 1PM, BBC 6 MUSIC

★★★★

Craig is joined by the band Metronomy this afternoon for a live session of electro pop. The band began in 1999 and expanded a few years later, releasing their debut album, Pip Paine (Pay

The £5000 You Owe) – with its opening song, You Could Easily Have Me – in 2006. Metronomy’s most recent album is called Small World, and we can hear a track or

two from that album here.

Van Gogh (10am, World Service)