RADIO CHOICE

BLACK MUSIC IN EUROPE: A HIDDEN HISTORY (RADIO 4, 9AM, 9.30PM) treats us to a treasure-trove of fantastic music that hardly a soul has heard for decades. Much of it comes from old shellac recordings, made in Germany, which have been saved from destruction by an avid collector called Rainer Lotz. These records, which go back to the Twenties but sound freshly minted, feature the black artistes who filled the nightclubs of Berlin, until the Nazis came along and spoiled all the fun. In the first of this three-part series, Clarke Peters (pictured) plays gems from Lotz’s collection.

THE Birmingham-born writer Elizabeth Jolley had her first novel published when she was 53. She became one of Australia’s best-known writers, but her books weren’t her only work of fiction. THE HOUSE OF

FICTION (RADIO 4 EXTRA, 11.15AM, 9.15PM),

starring Miriam Margolyes and Juliet Aubrey, tells the story of an invented family, secrets and lies. IN THE third of his funny, four-part stand-up series

TOM PARRY’S FANCY DRESSED LIFE (RADIO 4, 11.15PM)

— which covers a year’s worth of costume parties — Tom gets hot under his fancy-dress collar about guests who come to Halloween parties looking sexy, not scary, while he sweats away in cardboard and sticky tape, dressed as a velociraptor, with coat hangers for claws.