SUSAN JEFFREYS’ Radio Week

MY DREAM DINNER PARTY

SATURDAY, 10.30AM, RADIO 4 ★★★★ Joan Bakewell raids the sound archives and, with a clever bit of editing, constructs her perfect dinner party. Kirk Douglas and Barbara Windsor are among the guests, and there’ll be gossip, laughs and tantrums.

COUNTRY 2 COUNTRY

SATURDAY, 3PM, RADIO 2 ★★★★

Bob Harris and Tebey host coverage of the second day of the country music festival, with music from Kip Moore and Russell Dickerson, plus backstage interviews.

DESERT ISLAND DISCS REVISITED

SUNDAY, 10AM, 9PM, R4 EXTRA ★★★★ Back when George Clooney was one of the world’s most desirable bachelors, he was sent by Sue Lawley to the BBC’S legendary desert island. In this repeat programme, we learn about the eight records he chose to take to the island.

TALK TO ME MONDAY, 10AM, 3PM, RADIO 4 EXTRA

★★★★

The cult horror novelist H.P. Lovecraft had a short, strange and poverty-stricken marriage to a Ukrainian woman. This drama documentary focuses on the marriage and a dark family secret that had a profound effect on Lovecraft.

AYRES ON THE AIR

TUESDAY,

7AM, 5PM, RADIO 4 EXTRA ★★★★ Pam Ayres is 75 this week, so Radio 4 Extra has put together a compilation – including Will I Have To Be Sexy At Sixty? – of her poems about getting older.

OUR FRIENDS IN THE NORTH

THURSDAY, 2.15PM, RADIO 4 ★★★★ This saga, mixing the personal and the political, was a hit TV series in 1996. Now, it’s been adapted into a ten-part radio drama by its playwright, Peter Flannery, with a new end by writer Adam Usden.

THE SMUGGLERS’ TRAIL

FRIDAY, 11AM, RADIO 4 ★★★★

In November 2021, 30 people piled into an inflatable dinghy in a doomed attempt to reach England from France. The dinghy deflated as they crossed the Channel. Former soldier Rob Lawrie follows a story of death and revenge.

ARCHERS UPDATE

Will Harrison, dressed in a white robe, be dunked by Alan in the mighty Am while the rest of the villagers follow him down to the riverside? It’s not how they do things in Ambridge, but we can live in hope. As Harrison’s big day approaches, Fallon’s fears of being preyed on by the righteous and the holy reach fever pitch. There’s further tension from Alice when she makes a decision that has huge ramifications for many a soul in Ambridge. Meanwhile, Alan and Jim, in their own separate ways, find out if it is better to give than receive, Roy gets caught between a rock and a hard place, and Justin and Lilian – always keen to store up treasures on Earth – find themselves with cause for concern.