RADIO CHOICE

THIN as an excuse and sharp as a razor, the performance poet John Cooper Clarke adjusts his thick-rimmed glasses and adds an extra layer of confusion to his hair. He gets himself comfortable as the political cartoonist Martin Rowson prepares to draw the dapper Bard of Salford. While Martin draws, John gives a rendition of some of his poetry, plus astute observations about his life and his looks in LIFE DRAWING (RADIO 4 (FM), 1.45PM).

BRAHMS’s Violin Concerto is joyous to listen to, but fiendishly difficult to play. Brahms wrote it for the violinist Joseph Joachim, and it’s full of fast scale passages, complex rhythms, multiple stops and broken chords. Riccardo Chailly conducts Leonidas Kavakos and the La Scala Philharmonic in this tricky

work to open tonight’s programme of BBC PROMS 2017 (RADIO 3, 6.30PM).

NORMAN LEWIS’S diary, Naples ’44, is full of gossip, scandal, crime, sex and

insights. The book covers the period when Lewis was working with the Intelligence Corps in the recently liberated and recklessly febrile Naples. In GREAT LIVES (RADIO 4,

11.30PM), the acclaimed war photographer Don McCullin (pictured) recalls his friendship with Lewis, and explains why he thinks that this writer, photographer and very brave man led a great life.