THIS WEEK’S RADIO PICKS
MONDAY THIS UNION: TWO KINGDOMS RADIO 4, 8PM
Scotland gets its turn in this look at the state of our nation past and present. Over three parts, Dumfries and Galloway-born reporter Allan Little looks at how Scotland became part of the UK, and why the ties with England are now unravelling.
TOM STOPPARD: A LIFE RADIO 4 EXTRA, 2PM
Hermione Lee’s biography of this country’s greatest living playwright – his latest work, Leopoldstadt, is in the West End now – and Oscar-winning writer of Shakespeare In Love is read by Alex Jennings.
TUESDAY ELECTRIC RIDE UK RADIO 4, 11AM
As car-buyers ponder whether it’s worth buying electric ahead of the 2030 deadline on combustion-engine vehicles, Peter Curran travels from Land’s End to John O’Groats by electric car to see how well prepared we are for this climate-changing innovation.
WEDNESDAY DRAMA: LIFE LINES RADIO 4, 2.15PM
In its fifth series, Al Smith’s drama, set in an ambulance control room, returns in a longer 45-minute format. Sarah Ridgeway plays Carrie, who finds her personal and professional lives colliding, and her judgment questioned. Concludes tomorrow.
THURSDAY IN OUR TIME, RADIO 4, 9AM
Long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, it was the ancestors of today’s crocodiles that were in charge at the dawn of the Triassic period 250million years ago. Some of them were the size of buses. Melvyn Bragg and experts discuss what happened to them.
FRIDAY RADIO 3 IN CONCERT RADIO 3, 7PM
Andrew McGregor and pianist Katya Apekisheva host the first of two programmes of concerto finals at Leeds International Piano Competition, and there are highlights of the contest so far plus interviews and comment. Part two is tomorrow at 6.30pm.
SATURDAY JAMES BOND: SOUNDTRACK STORIES RADIO 2, 9PM
The latest Bonderama, No Time To Die, is finally out at the end of this month. Here, critic James King celebrates the franchise’s distinctive music and talks to lyricist Don Black and composer David Arnold, who both worked on the much-loved films.