RADIO CHOICE

NAPOLEON (pictured) was held captive on a British ship for several days in Plymouth Sound. Sightseers flocked to see him, cheering whenever he appeared on deck. This reaction to a long-standing enemy says much about Napoleon’s ambiguous personality. He was both repressive and a liberal, a warmonger with dreams of a peaceful empire and a ruthless dictator who believed in equality. THE FORUM (BBC WORLD SERVICE, 9.05AM, 12.05AM) joins Bridget Kendall and guests for a discussion on the contradictory nature of Napoleon Bonaparte.

TRANSCARPATHIA lies south of the Carpathian mountains and was once part of the AustroHungarian Empire. Known to many as Little Hungary, this small, remote region is officially part of the Ukraine.

The area, as we hear in this week’s CROSSING CONTINENTS (RADIO 4, 11AM), is the focus of a brewing conflict between Hungary and the Ukraine.

WHEN Rodrigo wrote his Concierto De Aranjuez, the Spanish composer hoped to capture ‘the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds and the gushing of fountains’ found in Philip II’s spring palace. He more than succeeded, transporting listeners to the pleasures of a fragrant Spanish garden. The piece is included in a RADIO 3 IN CONCERT (7.30PM) given by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.