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Jeremy Vine celebrates poetry this week to mark National Poetry Day on 7 October. Every day, Jeremy hosts discussions, listens to readings and explores, with his listeners, the unique potential for poetry to touch and change lives.

Each day's programme focuses on a different theme and poetry's ability to move, excite or comfort people, whether they are experiencing intense joy, grief, heart-stopping or gut-wrenching turmoil or pleasure. Subjects covered include love, war, death, places and children.

Each lunchtime this week, a listener reads out a meaningful poem and explains its particular appeal and relevance to them. Listeners are invited to join the discussion on what makes poetry so special and powerful in today's busy, multi-media world. The programme has two in-house poets, Mr Gee and Lucy Berry, who each write a poem to match the subject of the day during the show.

DJ, poet and presenter for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 4's Sony Award-nominated series Bespoken Word, Mr Gee uses his African and Caribbean roots and hip hop DJ background to craft his unique lyrical style. Former poet-in-residence for The Jeremy Vine Show, Lucy Berry writes vividly, passionately and sometimes angrily about the pressures and pleasures of modern life. Their poems will also be uploaded at the end of the show to: bbc.co.uk/radio2 and listeners are invited to submit their poetry for publication online. Other online activity includes a specially filmed masterclass in poetry writing by Mr Gee.

Jeremy says "I had a poetry moment when I was at college. I suddenly realised I loved what I was reading – mainly Philip Larkin at that time. Nowadays TV and movies and the web have demolished attention spans and distracted us, but I think poetry is great for the internet age: it's short and pithy. So bring it on, Radio 2!"

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American actress, comedian and star of the West End's Sister Act, Whoopi Goldberg presents Something Borrowed, the fifth documentary in ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 2's season of programmes celebrating The Musical.

All musicals, from the latest, most innovative show, to tried and tested favourites from an earlier century, make their impact by using music to transform the commonplace into the exceptional. In its early life, the musical was sometimes the product of East Coast Broadway impressarios. And at other times, it was the work of Hollywood's West Coast movie moguls. Inevitably, Broadway started looking to successful film stories, along with plays, as sources of inspiration for plots in musical theatre: All About Eve became the musical Applause, and a musical based on the film Ghost (in which Whoopi starred) is now in development.

In Something Borrowed, Whoopi looks at shows inspired by plays and films including Sunset Boulevard, West Side Story, A Little Night Music and Nine. The programme features contributions from Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, Patti Lupone, Don Black, Michael Grandage, Jerry Herman, Tim Rice, Maury Yeston, Liz Robertson, Gillian Lynne and Richard Stilgoe.

Tim Rice can also be heard presenting Tim Rice's American Pie on Thursday evenings on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 2 at 11pm.

Presenter/Whoopi Goldberg, Producer/Malcolm Prince for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

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This week Donald Macleod introduces Richard Wagner, a composer whose name instantly ignites controversy like no other.

Wagner's life was every bit as much of a titanic saga as the epic music dramas he invented. He was a young firebrand of 22 when he made his debut as an opera composer with Das liebesverbot (The Ban On Love), and the première was a fiasco, with fights on stage even before the curtain rose. His opera Rienzi was much more successful, capturing the revolutionary spirit of the time and putting Wagner's name on the map.

Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/David Dwight

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Russian conductor Dima Slobodeniouk leads the Ulster Orchestra in a varied programme starting with Mozart's impish overture to The Impresario. Pianist Sergei Babayan is the soloist in Rachmaninov's famously demanding Third Piano Concerto, which the composer wrote for his American concert tour in 1909.

The programme ends with Sibelius's ever-popular Second Symphony: a journey from an evocation of the Finnish landscape, through awakening of the nationalist spirit, to a final song of triumph.

Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/Peter Thresh

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Rana Mitter talks to the eminent and influential primatologist Frans de Waal.

Frans de Waal's ground-breaking book, Our Inner Ape, argued that empathy, morality and the ability to co-operate are inherent in human nature. Such genetically endowed virtues, he believes – unlike many economists – drive evolution as much as the darker drives of competitiveness, aggression and selfishness. And all this is evident by studying the behaviour of our primate cousins. De Waal believes we should turn to primatologists, not sociologists to understand human behaviour – and in 2007 he was on Time's List of the 100 most influential people in the world.

He talks to Rana about how his new work extends these arguments to suggest that the behaviour of other animals, particularly monkeys, contains many lessons for those seeking to build a more just human society.

Presenter/Rana Mitter, Producer/James Cook

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Writers and academics explore aspects of the Stewart dynasty, in this week's series of essays.

In tonight's programme historian and author Dr Fiona Watson looks at the bloody comeback of James I, King of Scots (1394-1437), one of the most powerful and controversial kings of the medieval Stewart dynasty.

It's not the greatest start to life when your elder brother gets murdered in a castle dungeon by your wicked uncle, who's muscling in on your sick father; but then it only gets worse for young Prince James. While being sent to safety in France aged 12, he was kidnapped by English pirates. The very next month, his father died and the young prisoner became King of Scots, spending 18 years in captivity.

A vital part of this time was spent at the court of Henry V, the victor of Agincourt. This would influence the rest of James's life, giving him fresh (and if you were one of his nobles you might say "worrying") ideas of what a monarch should be and how a country should be run. The return of the King to Scotland would not only bring bloody vengeance upon the family of his late uncle, the Duke of Albany, but a new and energetic style of kingship. However, James had a tendency to take things just a bit too far.

Reader/Fiona Watson, Producer/Louisa Yeoman

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British Museum director Neil MacGregor

British Museum director Neil MacGregor explores the often troubled relationship between Europeans and the rest of the world, as he continues his history of the world through 100 items from the museum.

In today's programme Neil tells the story of a now-fragile African drum. It was taken to America during the years of the slave trade, where it came into contact with Native Americans.

The drum was brought to England by Sir Hans Sloane, whose collection helped provide the British Museum with its first material. This drum, the earliest African-American object in the museum, is a rare surviving example of an instrument whose music was to profoundly influence American culture – bought to America on a slave ship and transported to Britain by a slave owner. Historian Anthony Appiah and writer Bonnie Greer consider the impact of this drum.

Presenter/Neil MacGregor, Producer/Anthony Denselow for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

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When a number of distinguished members of government committees are found dead in suspicious circumstances, it falls to DCI Kate Duncan of Scotland Yard's Sensitive Cases Squad to discover what the connecting factor is, in the first part of The Power Of Life And Death, The Resurrection Of Imelda Sharp.

This drama, written by Mark Lawson, explores a major concern at the heart of a cash-strapped NHS: the postcode lottery and exactly who is to be considered deserving of the most expensive life-saving drugs on the market.

This Woman's Hour drama features Haydn Gwynne as Kate Duncan, Lloyd Thomas as Lorezo, Chris McHallem as Briggs, Honor Blackman as Dame Imelda Sharp, Abigail McKern as Hermoine Sharp, Abigail McGibbon as Sue Wells, Nick Dunning as Dr Tom Cready and Stella McCusker as Dee Mortimer, and Jeremy Vine appears as himself.

Producer/Eoin O'Callaghan for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

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Craig Brown's Lost Diaries Ep 1/6

Monday 4 October

11.30am-12.00noon ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ RADIO 4
(Programme title change 24 September)

Satirist Craig Brown

Dipping into the private lives of public figures, satirist Craig Brown imagines the thoughts of the great and good, as they turn their attention to new beginnings in January and February.

This week Craig considers Barack Obama, Barbara Cartland and John Prescott.

Written by Craig, the series is voiced by Jan Ravens, Alistair McGowan, Lewis McLeod, Ewan Bailey, Margaret Cabourn-Smith and Dolly Wells.

Producer/Victoria Lloyd for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

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Presenter Miranda Sawyer investigates teenage sexual culture from internet porn to the meaning behind different colour "shag bands".

"Shag bands" are thin, coloured rubber bracelets, indicating how far the wearer will go sexually if the band is broken.

Purple for a kiss or yellow for a hug may seem comparatively harmless but some of the other colours such as black for full intercourse or blue for oral sex ring alarm bells.

A Wakefield MP recently campaigned to stop shops selling them after complaints from parents including a mother who innocently bought some for her six-year-old child's party bag. Elsewhere schools have banned "shag bands" after finding pupils wearing them.

Part of playground culture, they're often worn innocently or in a show of bravado, but there is a darker side where early sexual exploration strays into the easily accessible world of internet porn. Where children once passed notes, they now use their mobile phones to share explicit images and there's peer pressure through social networking sites.

Miranda, herself a mother, investigates whether society and parents are aware of just what their children are getting up to and asks how concerned should we be about the sexualisation of children in media, advertising and fashion, such as the sale of padded bras for pre-pubescent girls or sexual references on T-shirts for primary aged kids.

Presenter/Miranda Sawyer, Producer/Sara Parker for Juniper Productions

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Book At Bedtime – Mr Chartwell Ep 1/10

Monday 4 to Friday 8 October

10.45-11.00pm ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ RADIO 4

Mr Chartwell is Rebecca Hunt's dark and quirky psychological thriller about depression.

Set across five days in July 1964, it follows the bizarrely intertwined lives of Sir Winston Churchill, Esther Hammerhans and the unwelcome visitor they both share.

July 1964, and the day looms when Winston Churchill must leave Parliament. Meanwhile, Esther, a library clerk, has her own black date in the diary; she also has an unusual visitor.

The reader is Miriam Margolyes and Mr Chartwell is abridged and produced by Jill Waters.

Reader/Miriam Margolyes, Producer/Jill Waters for The Waters Partnership

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Mark Chapman presents the day's sports news and is joined by special guests for The Monday Night Club to discuss the latest big football issues.

At 9pm Mark is joined by Mark Clemmit for a round up from the Championship and Leagues One and Two in 5 Live Football League.

From 9.30pm, Mark Chapman and Dave Vitty take a quick-fire comedic look at the latest football news in Football Express. Then, at 10pm, Mark discusses one of the day's big sports stories.

Presenter/Mark Chapman, Producer/Mike Carr

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Commonwealth Games

Monday 4 October

11.25am-1.15pm ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Live coverage comes from the opening day of the swimming finals at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Producer/Jen McAllister

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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 6 Music DJ and lead singer of Fun Lovin' Criminals Huey Morgan starts his tenure on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 6 Music weekdays while Lauren Laverne is on maternity leave.

His first live studio session comes courtesy of Badly Drawn Boy who today releases his seventh studio album, It's What I'm Thinking Pt. 1 – Photographing Snowflakes. Damon Gough joins Huey to talk about the album and play a couple of live tracks.

Presenter/Huey Morgan, Producer/Gary Bales

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Darren Hayman And The Secondary Modern are live in session for Marc Riley.

Essex Arms is the new offering from the band, due to be released on Monday 18 October. The second in a proposed trilogy of albums about Hayman's home county of Essex, Essex Arms is a conceptual piece about the East Anglian rural underbelly. Whereas Pram Town (2009) dealt with the displacement and ennui of living in a new town (Harlow), Essex Arms takes the narrative to the countryside.

The album features contributions from The Wave Pictures, Fanfarlo and, on the single Calling Out Your Name, a duet with Emmy The Great.

Presenter/Marc Riley, Producer/Michelle Choudhry

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Barry Smith, director of the Institute of Philosophy, continues to examine the surprising answers that contemporary neuroscience is providing to many questions about the brain that have remained a mystery, and considers how these answers are changing our sense of ourselves.

The series includes interviews with some of the world's leading neuroscientists.

Presenter/Barry Smith

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