RADIO CHOICE

MILES JUPP (pictured) returns with series 99 of veteran panel show THE NEWS QUIZ (RADIO 4, 6.30PM). Joining him this evening to bounce topical gags back and forth are the journalist Helen Lewis, Welsh comedian Elis James, writer Andy Hamilton and American stand-up Desiree Burch. KEN BRUCE presents this week’s FRIDAY NIGHT IS MUSIC NIGHT (RADIO 2, 8PM), recorded at the Hackney Empire, as conductor Stephen Bell leads the BBC Concert Orchestra through a performance of Friday Night favourites, including Light Cavalry, Marche Slave, The Merry Widow and Annie Get Your Gun. Vocals come courtesy of soprano Ailish Tynan and baritone Toby Stafford-Allen.

JUST why do the things that we find beautiful — from faces to sunsets, music to paintings — affect us so deeply? And is the ability to recognise the beauty in

something an evolutionary advantage? A special edition of CROWDSCIENCE (BBC WORLD SERVICE, 8.30PM) — recorded at the International Science Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden — ponders these questions and more, through the lens of biology, neuroscience, art and mathematics. The programme also explores whether machines will ever be able recognise beauty.