RADIO CHOICE

COULD the boot be on the other foot for the penniless hack Ed Reardon? Once, he lived the life of a millionaire, but an unopened tax bill left him on a steady slide to the gutter. Now, it seems, HMRC may owe Ed a small fortune. Christopher Douglas stars in this continuing repeat of the cracking comedy series ED REARDON’S WEEK (RADIO 4 (FM), 11.30AM).

WALTER has always looked up to his older brother and made a hero of him. This adoration has lasted into adulthood, but now, Walter finds himself put to the test. His brother is accused of a serious crime, and Walter, for the first time, has to question his belief in his sibling. Jimmy Akingbola (pictured), Enyi Okoronkwo and Lara Rossi star in BROTHER OF MINE (RADIO 4 (FM), 2.15PM), a gritty drama by Nathaniel Price.

JEAN HARLOW was only 26 when she died, but had already clocked up three marriages. She was the original platinum blonde, a look achieved by heavy weekly applications of peroxide and ammonia. By the time of her death, her hair was falling out in clumps, and her pretty face was horribly bloated. For tonight’s instalment of THE ESSAY: FIVE SCREEN GODDESSES (RADIO 3, 10.45PM), Sarah Churchwell, who admires Jean for her wit and undervalued acting talent, tells the story of her life and puts forward a theory about her early death.