PICK OF TODAY’S RADIO

BIRD ISLAND, 11.15PM, RADIO 4 EXTRA

REECE SHEARSMITH stars in this sitcom series, along with Alison Steadman and Julian Rhind-Tutt. The Inside No. 9 star (pictured) plays Ben, a scientist based in the sub-Antarctic, who’s trying to keep cheerful as he records an audio diary on his Dictaphone. He has also joined a special dating agency for scientists. His chances of a face-toface meeting are, like the island he’s living on, remote. It’s a terrific cast, but it’s Katy Wix’s witty script that makes this sitcom so great. It begins a rerun of its four-part second series tonight.

THE spiders of Australia are a fearsome bunch. They come in many sizes, including Big and Much Too Big. Their venom can be deadly but, for us humans, they’re really not much to worry about. No one in Australia has died from a spider bite for 50 years. We get the details about spider habits — which are mighty odd — in an Australian edition of Brian Cox and Robert Ince’s science show THE INFINITE MONKEY CAGE (4PM, RADIO 4).