Programme Information

Graham Norton presents three hours of music and celebrity conversation on his BBC Radio 2 Saturday morning show.

The nation's favourite agony uncle is joined by Maria McErlane for Grill Graham where listeners' problems are solved live on air. I Can't Believe It's Not Better revisits some of the worst songs ever to hit the charts, and Graham invites listeners to submit their favourite Tune With A Tale, where one unfortunate listener chats to Mr Norton about their personal interpretation of a familiar song.

Plus there's travel with Bobbie Pryor, sport with Alistair Bruce-Ball and the very best celebrity guests. Listeners can email the show at graham.norton@bbc.co.uk

Presenter/Graham Norton, Producer/Malcolm Prince for the BBC

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Dermot O'Leary has a triple bill of Saturday Sessions from the Ivor Novello-winning singer-songwriter James Blunt, ex-Libertine Carl Barat and the alt-country collective Mt Desolation.

James Blunt performs for Dermot's show as he prepares to release his third studio album, Some Kind Of Trouble, and embark upon a 30-date European tour.

Carl Barat recently reunited with his former Libertine bandmate Pete Doherty for the Reading and Leeds festivals. But he's now focusing his attentions on solo projects, with the release of a debut self-titled solo album, following hot on the heels of his autobiography, Threepenny Memoir: The Lives Of A Libertine.

Finally, Mt Desolation is the country music side-project of Keane's Tim Rice-Oxley (who co-wrote Everything Is Beautiful for Kylie Minogue's Aphrodite album) and Jesse Quin. Born from a stout-fuelled conversation in a Dublin pub, the debut Mt Desolation album is released on Monday (18 October)and features contributions from members of Noah & The Whale, The Killers and Mumford & Sons.

Presenter/Dermot O'Leary, Producer/Ben Walker for Labora TV

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Stand-up comedian Stephen K Amos

Stephen K Amos presents a stand-up comedy showcase for Black History Month.

Recorded live at the Hackney Empire earlier in the year, the line-up features the best black stand-up comedians in the UK; ranging from observational stand-up to hip-hop comedy.

The show features Andi Osho (Mock The Week); Felix Dexter (The Real McCoy, Bellamy's People); Ava Vidal (Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow); Eddie Kadi (who sold out the O2); Doc Brown (rapper-turned-comedian); Nathan Caton (award-winning new stand-up); Slim (winner of best male at Black Comedy Awards) and Annette Fagan.

Black History Month is now a regular annual celebration of the history and culture of ethnic communities across the UK.

Presenter/Stephen K Amos, Producer/Sam Bryant for the BBC

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Catherine Bott talks to Dutch organist, harpsichordist and conductor Ton Koopman about his career. As a young student Ton was fascinated by authentic instruments and his performance style has remained steeped in scholarship. He formed his first baroque orchestra aged 25, and in 1979 he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, and then the Amsterdam Baroque Choir in 1992.

Catherine talks to Ton about how he balances his career as a soloist and conductor, and his championing of Buxtehude's music. The repertoire in the programme includes Biber's 32-part Dixit Dominus, a movement from a Bach cantata and Buxtehude's cantata Membra Jesu nostri.

Presenter/Catherine Bott, Producer/Rebecca Bean

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Banning Eyre heads into North West Argentina, travelling through the provinces of Salta and Jujuy to hear the songs and carnival music of the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a mountain valley in the foothills of the Andes.

The music of the Humahuaca valley is a mix of pan-pipes and end-blown flutes, frame drums and cow horns, mixed with guitars, accordions and mandolins; songs are sung in Spanish as well as Quechua, and the Virgin Mary is venerated alongside Pachamama.

Banning is joined by local musician Tomas Lipan, who tells stories of his childhood embarrassment at eating local foods, playing indigenous instruments and the cultural pressure he felt not to express his indigenous heritage.

Poet, teacher and restaurant owner Fortunato Ramos plays carnival music with his band and Michaela Chauque, a young quena (end-blown flute) player, draws heavily on the ancestral music, and performs a song about the Pucara de Tilcara, a pre-Incan fortress, as well as singing Coplas from the Tilcara Carnival.

Presenter/Banning Eyre, Producer/Peter Meanwell

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Angela Denoke in the title role of Salome

Tonight's Opera On 3 presents Richard Strauss's Salome from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden starring Angela Denoke in the title role, Irina Mishura as Herodias and Gerhard Siegel as Herod. It is conducted by Hartmut Haenchen.

Based on a short biblical reference to a girl dancing for King Herod and the immortal line: "Bring me the head of John the Baptist", Oscar Wilde's play tells a lurid tale of power and corruption, depravity and obsession; and Strauss set it to music without any restraint.

The company includes Andrew Staples (tenor); Sarah Castle (mezzo-soprano); Nicolas Courjal (bass); Alan Ewing (bass); Johan Reuter (baritone); John Cunningham (bass-baritone); Angela Denoke (soprano); Gerhard Siegel (tenor); Irina Mishura (mezzo-soprano); Adrian Thompson (tenor); Robert Anthony Gardiner (tenor); Hubert Francis (tenor); Steven Ebel (tenor); Jeremy White (bass); Vuyani Mlinde (bass); and Dawid Kimberg (baritone). They are joined by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and conducted by Hartmut Haenchen.

Presenter/Andrew McGregor, Producer/Anthony Sellors

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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The Wire – Why I Don't Hate White People

Saturday 16 October

8.00-8.50pm BBC RADIO 3

Poet Lemn Sissay has been invited to read at a community centre in Salford. Recorded in front of a live audience this is Lemn's one-man, roller-coaster investigation into why he doesn't hate white people from his unique position as a black man who grew up in the area and never knew another black person until he was 18. The programme features tales of pain and injustice which often inspire tears of laughter.

Lemn asks on what terms he is accepted as a writer and performer by this audience. It's 2010 and he is still a black man in a white man's world. Lemn's genial good humour begins to desert him and anger begins to take over; will he get to the end of the evening and answer his own question?

Lemn Sissay is a poet, playwright, performer and broadcaster and writer in residence at the South Bank Centre.

Presenter/Lemn Sissay, Producer/Claire Grove

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Presenter and friend of Alfred Wainwright, Eric Robson

Eric Robson re-evaluates the often misunderstood fell walker Alfred Wainwright.

It is 80 years since Wainwright first visited the Lake District. For a boy brought up among mill chimneys, noisy factories and dirty canals it was a magical revelation, love at first sight. He would go on to write more than 40 guidebooks and encourage millions to follow in his footsteps.

Wainwright was a recluse; on the surface curmudgeonly and intolerant. The mysteries and rumours that surrounded this elusive character added to the personality cult that made his Pictorial Guides To The Fells international best-sellers.

Before Wainwright, most people would stand in the bottom of a valley and say they could not reach the top. Then they would see his way of dissecting mountains, for Wainwright is every bit as clever as the man who invented the London Underground map. He took a mountain, he filleted it, turned it into a two-dimensional image and made it more understandable.

Thirty years ago presenter Eric Robson made five series with Wainwright for the BBC. They remained friends until Wainwright's death in 1991. Eric has an extensive personal collection of archive material of Wainwright in conversation which reveals an unfamiliar side to this complex character.

Presenter/Eric Robson, Producer/Barney Rowntree for Somethin' Else

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Saturday 16 October

12.00noon-6.06pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Eleanor Oldroyd presents an afternoon of live sport including rugby union's European Cup updates from Edinburgh versus Northampton, plus coverage of all the day's sports news.

From 3pm there is live coverage of the afternoon's football action including Manchester United against West Bromwich Albion and Arsenal versus Birmingham City.

At 5pm Sports Report has reports from all the day's big matches and the classified football results with James Alexander Gordon.

Presenter/Eleanor Oldroyd, Producer/Mark Williams

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

5 Live Football League

Saturday 16 October

2.45-5.15pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Listeners can enjoy commentary on a leading game in the Championship, plus reports and score updates from across the Football League.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

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Rugby Union

Saturday 16 October

5.40-7.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary on Saracens versus Leinster in the European Cup, comes live from Wembley.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Dave Pearce presents 30 years of classic dance anthems from electro to techno via hardcore and house alongside future big room club tunes.

This week there's the latest in Dave's series of featured record label profiles, and Dave continues his search for the ultimate rave anthem. There's also new music from Swedish House Mafia and Duck Sauce, and in the final 30 minutes, Dave will be in the mix with a selection of upfront trance tunes.

Presenter/Dave Pearce, Producer/Rowan Collinson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Tom Robinson introduces the best new music from Manchester's In The City festival. Tom's guests are Vinyl Jacket, who feature on the BBC Introducing Stage at the event. The Newcastle band blew Tom away when he saw them in the North East and he personally recommended them for the festival.

Presenter/Tom Robinson, Producer/Tom Whalley

BBC 6 Music Publicity

To mark the 50th anniversary of African Independence, in collaboration with British African Theatre Company Tiata Fahodzi this programme showcases extracts from a range of plays from across Africa, from the last five decades.

Highlights include the Oedipus myth from an African perspective in Ola Rotimi's The Gods Are Not To Blame; an ebullient comedy about a young woman's family trying to get the highest bride-price for her in Guillaume Oyônô-Mbia's Three Suitors: One Husband From Cameroon; and a scene from last year's Olivier Award-winning Gone Too Far! by Bola Agbaje, a British playwright of Nigerian origin.

BBC World Service Publicity