RADIO CHOICE

DEBORAH FRANCESWHITE ROLLS THE DICE (RADIO 4, 11.30AM) is a great piece of radio. Deborah (pictured) was adopted, had a happy childhood, and then decided to search for her birth mother. The comedian tells the story in a series of sketches that are funny and emotional — but never sentimental.

MILES JUPP returns with a new, eight-part series of topical satire with THE NEWS QUIZ (RADIO 4, 6.30PM). The panel for the opening show consists of Jeremy Hardy, Vicki Pepperdine, Andy Hamilton and Kerry Godliman.

VERDI’S Requiem seemed so operatic and dramatic when it was first heard that many critics thought it unsuitable for church performances. The BBC Proms Youth Choir and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted

by Marin Alsop, perform this mighty and emotional work for the BBC PROMS 2016 (RADIO 3, 7.30PM). THE psychologist John B. Watson conducted an experiment in 1920 to instil a phobia in an emotionally stable child. ‘Albert’ was just nine months old when the experiment began. He was conditioned to recoil in fear from a white rat, and eventually recoiled from any white fluffy object. In THE ESSAY: FEAR ITSELF (RADIO 3, 10.45PM), Matthew Sweet uncovers the tragic story behind this dubious piece of research work.