Rosamund Pike, Joan Bakewell and a new series by Jeremy Bowen among the Spring highlights on BBC Radio 4

These include:

• A new play by Joan Bakewell, written in reaction to Harold Pinter’s Betrayal and examining the affair from another perspective.
• A new dramatisation of Michael Cunningham’s 1999 book The Hours, starring Rosamund Pike and Fenella Woolgar
• BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen presents a major new series on the region
• Mel Giedroyc stars in a new radio comedy show Rum Bunch, with Justin Edwards and Dave Mounfield
• Jane Garvey and Fi Glover host a new Radio 4 podcast, Fortunately

Gwyneth Williams says: “From Joan Bakewell’s new drama to Jeremy Bowen’s unique take on the Middle East, I am proud to bring some of the most original and authoritative voices across the range of culture, current affairs and comedy, to Radio 4’s listeners this spring. And our new podcast too, Fortunately, from two favourites, Jane Garvey and Fi Glover, who’ll be sharing their must-listen moments from the world of radio with us.”

Keeping In Touch, by Joan Bakewell

In 1978 when Joan Bakewell read Harold Pinter’s play Betrayal, she was shocked and hurt. It was founded on the story of their 1960s love affair which until then had remained secret. In response, and in an attempt to assert her own autonomy, she wrote her own play. Recently she has rediscovered and rewritten it for Radio 4.

Keeping In Touch recounts how a happily married woman struggles with the choices she has in living her life to the full. Set in the early 1960s, it reflects the morality of the day and the complexity of marriage, work and fidelity.

The cast includes Charlotte Riley (Jonathan Strange, Wuthering Heights) as Rachel and Colin Morgan (Merlin, The Living And The Dead) as Tom, alongside Alastair Petrie as David and Cesare Taurasi.

Joan Bakewell said: “It has been good to revisit my younger self and see my memories captured so well by this outstanding cast.”

Keeping In Touch will air on 22 April at 3.45pm. It is a BBC Radio production, directed and produced by Charlotte Riches.

The Hours, starring Rosamund Pike and Fennella Woolgar

Michael Cunningham’s book The Hours is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that became a film starring Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. In this new dramatisation, the first time the book has been heard on radio, Clarissa is played by Rosamund Pike and Virginia Woolf by Fenella Woolgar. Three women, in different locations and eras, surrounded by family, yet caged and unsettled. Virginia Woolf on the day she begins writing Mrs Dalloway, sneaks out of her house for some time alone in London but is brought home by her husband. Pregnant Laura Brown leaves her young son and checks into a hotel - she wants to read Mrs Dalloway on her own. Clarissa Dalloway plans a party for her best friend who has won an award but is also sick and distant.

Thwarted and yet secure, loved and yet feeling abandoned, financially settled and yet perched on a precipice – these women’s experiences and feelings echo and reflect each other, with themes of ambivalent motherhood, bisexuality, mental illness, creeping middle age, creative challenges, parental guilt, marital discord, suburban isolation, friendship and loss.

The cast also includes Teresa Gallagher, Lia Williams, Corey Johnson, Jack Towbin, David Annen, Rachel Atkins and Haley McGee.

The Hours will air on 16 and 23 April at 3pm

Adapted by Frances Byrnes. Directed by Polly Thomas and Judith Kampfner for the Corporation for Independent Media.

Simon Russell Beale stars in new play about JS Bach

Throughout Holy Week Radio 4 will focus on the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, with two documentaries and a radio drama about the composer.

James Runcie’s new play The Great Passion stars Simon Russell Beale as Bach and is set in Lent 1727, during the run up to the first performance of the St Matthew Passion, with his music conducted by John Butt and performed by the Dunedin Consort.

In the week preceding the play, two documentaries entitled Bach: Man Of Passion and A Passion For Bach, put his work into its historical context and examine why so many people turn to his music in times of sorrow, with contributions from Bach aficionados including Catherine Bott, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Judith Weir, Steven Isserlis and Marcus du Sautoy.

• Bach: The Great Passion will air on Saturday 15 April at 2.45pm. It is produced by Eoin O’Callaghan for Big Fish.
• Bach: Man Of Passion will air on Monday 10 April at 4pm. It is produced by Katharine Longworth.
• A Passion For Bach will air on Tuesday 11 April at 11.30am. It is produced by Martin Smith for BBC Wales.

Our Man In The Middle East

The BBC’s Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen has been reporting from the region for more than a quarter of a century. In this 25-part series for Radio 4 he combines first-hand accounts from the front line with an in-depth look into the region's history.

Bowen started reporting on the region in the lead up to the Gulf War back in 1990, and was in Baghdad the following year to report on a US air force attack which killed more than four hundred civilians in a shelter. Since then he’s witnessed individuals, religious groups and full-sized states jostling for military, political and economic power.

He’s seen how the past has affected the present, and has paid a personal price, coming under fire and losing a colleague in the course of his reporting - the worst day, he says, in his life.

Our Man in the Middle East starts on 15 May at 1.45pm. Presented by Jeremy Bowen, produced by Mark Savage and Cara Swift for BBC Radio Current Affairs.

Rum Bunch

Mel Giedroyc, Justin Edwards and Dave Mounfield team up for this gleeful new comedy series featuring a glorious array of sketches and music courtesy of the show’s very own house band - Jason Hazeley on piano and David Reed of the Penny Dreadfuls on drums. They will also be joined by a mystery special guest who will take centre stage in a thrilling radio drama, if Justin gets it written in time, and if Mel remembers the lines, and if Dave remembers to turn up.

The series is written by the performers, as well as comedy masterminds Toby Davies, Neil Edmond, Lucy Porter and Joel Morris.

Justin Edwards says: "I am delighted to be once again sharing the stage with such theatrical luminaries as Mel Giedroyc and Dave Mounfield. A true footsoldier of the theatre, dear Mel is such a brave performer, and constantly surprises me with her bold acting choices, whilst Dave has almost mastered the art of making tea."

Rum Bunch starts on 3 May at 6:30pm. Produced by Jim North for Top Dog Productions.

Fortunately: a new Radio 4 podcast

Fortunately is a new podcast from BBC Radio which brings Jane Garvey and Fi Glover together to sieve through the world of radio and share their must-listen moments. The podcast will bring audiences Fi and Jane’s tales from behind the mic, including moments of disaster and delightfulness, and will link together clips from across all kinds of radio programmes, as well as from the BBC archive.

The first episode of Fortunately will be available from 31 March on all usual podcast providers and on the Radio 4 website.

IP

Related Media Centre Links

• Contemporary responses to The Odyssey among diverse range of new arts commissions on BBC Radio 4