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Ken Bruce presents a special Christmas edition of Tracks Of My Years, featuring selections from Brandon Flowers, Bob Harris, Sir Jackie Stewart, Katherine Jenkins, Nanci Griffith, Phil Collins, Ozzy Osbourne, Meatloaf and many more. Ken also reveals his own favourite live music tracks of 2010.

Presenter/Ken Bruce, Producer/Lisa Smith for the ´óÏó´«Ã½

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´óÏó´«Ã½ 6 Music's Funk And Soul Show presenter Craig Charles continues to cover for Steve Wright this week and fills the Big Show Christmas Stockings once again. Craig is joined by special guests all week, as well as some fun festive features.

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Listeners have another chance to hear Paloma Faith in Down At The End Of Lonely Street, the concert that closed the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in May earlier this year, in a special one-off performance with The Guy Barker Orchestra.

The East-London singer behind hits like Stone Cold Sober and New York, is an actress and former magician's assistant whose retro-soul sound has been compared to Amy Winehouse.

She first performed on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 2 in Dermot O'Leary's show in June last year and was part of the station's live line-up at the 2009 Blackpool Illuminations. Paloma performs tracks from her album alongside the music of some of her idols, such as Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.

Producer/Jodie Keane for the ´óÏó´«Ã½

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´óÏó´«Ã½ 6 Music's Dave Pearce returns to ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 2 for Dance Anthems' third annual festival outing. Dave delves into his record box to pull out classic floor-fillers from Chic, Black Box, S-Express and De'Lacy, along with tune suggestions and stories of club culture from the Radio 2 audience.

Fellow 6 Music DJs, including Nemone, Huey Morgan and Jarvis Cocker, share their favourite dance tunes of all time and Dave also revisits some of 2010's biggest club anthems including Duck Sauce.

Presenter/Dave Pearce, Producer/Rowan Collinson for Somethin' Else

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In August Bob Harris celebrated his 40th anniversary on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio. To mark the occasion, Bob spoke to his friend Robert Plant about their first meetings in the UK, extraordinary tours with Led Zeppelin across America and their subsequent journeys, as broadcaster and musician respectively, through some extraordinary musical genres.

They also talk about Robert's preparations for his most recent album and tour with the latest incarnation of his Band Of Joy, culminating in the amazingly eclectic ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 2 Electric Proms at the Roundhouse at the end of October.

Presenter/Bob Harris, Producer/Mark Simpson for the ´óÏó´«Ã½

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Clare Teal presents the second part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Big Band in concert with Paul Carrack at the Town Hall, Birmingham. Their set includes Moon River, Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying, It Ain't Over and How Long Has This Been Going On?.

Presenter/Clare Teal, Producer/Terry Carter

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As part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s focus on opera in 2010, Donald Macleod explores the rich tradition of Russian opera, from Glinka to Schnittke.

A string of Italians from Ristori to Cimarosa staged productions in St Petersburg, thereby planting the seeds from which Russia's operatic tradition eventually sprang. That first sapling appeared in 1836 with Mikhail Glinka's A Life For The Tsar, universally regarded as the first "real" Russian opera.

Alexander Dargomyzhsky continued the move away from the Italian tradition with his naturalistic approach to text-setting in In The Stone Guest, which removed the distinction between aria and recitative.

Modest Mussorgsky took part in early private run-throughs of Dargomyzhsky's work and was so impressed that he decided to try his hand at the same kind of thing: the result was The Marriage, his first opera and an important milestone on the way to his masterpiece Boris Godunov.

Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Chris Barstow

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This week, Afternoon On 3 celebrates the riches and diversity of 2010's musical summer, with performances from leading festivals in Europe and beyond, by some of the world's great singers, instrumentalists and ensembles.

During the series the programme visits 25 festivals in 15 countries – as far afield as Romania and Canada. At the heart of the week are concerts from top festivals in Austria and Switzerland, including the Martha Argerich Project in Lugano and Nikolaus Harnoncourt's Styriarte Festival in Graz.

The Thursday opera matinée is Bellini's Norma, conducted by Fabio Biondi with his period-instrument ensemble Europa Galante at the Chopin Institute and his Europe Festival in Warsaw.

Large choral works are also a regular feature throughout the week, from Beethoven's Missa solemnis and Rachmaninov's Vespers to a celebration of Arvo Pärt's 75th birthday in his native Estonia.

Presenter/Jonathan Swain, Producer/David Gallagher

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´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3 continues to celebrate the talents of its New Generation Artists in the second of a two-week series of early evening programmes showcasing some of the studio and concert recordings made by members of the scheme over the past year.

The New Generation Artists scheme exists to provide support to some of the brightest talents in the world of classical music, offering unrivalled opportunities for concerts and studio recordings. Since its foundation in 1999 it has included artists such as the Belcea String Quartet, Paul Lewis, Janine Jansen and Alice Coote among its distinguished members.

Presenter/Sarah Walker, Producer/Lindsay Kemp

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Listeners can relive this celebration of Stephen Sondheim's unique talents at a ´óÏó´«Ã½ Prom recorded at London's Royal Albert Hall in July.

A star-studded cast performs songs from some of his best-loved shows. Bryn Terfel, playing the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, is joined by Maria Friedman, Simon Russell Beale, Julian Ovenden, Caroline O'Connor, Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell, with a special guest appearance from Dame Judi Dench.

David Charles Abell conducts the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Concert Orchestra, aspiring young performers supported by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Performing Arts Fund and a specially formed ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms Sondheim Ensemble.

Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/Philip Tagney

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Listeners have another chance to hear an all-Chopin programme played at London's Royal Albert Hall in July by acclaimed Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires.

Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/David Gallagher

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Each year, the Today programme hands over the editorial reins to five public figures, giving them a chance to decide what goes on the programme between Christmas and New Year.

This year's line-up is:

Diana Athill, literary editor and memoirist
Colin Firth, actor
Sam Taylor-Wood, artist and film-maker
Richard Ingrams, journalist and co-founder of Private Eye
Dame Clara Furse, business woman and former CEO of LSE

On Monday, Diana Athill, a staunch atheist, asks Archibishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams what faith, or the lack of it, tells us about a person. She also champions bedtime stories for adults.

On Tuesday, Colin Firth's programme asks how effective international aid is, and also sees Dame Edna Everage and John Humphrys reunited.

On Wednesday, Sam Taylor-Wood investigates whether childbirth is now seen as a medical problem rather than a natural process and examines the role of women in Hollywood.

On Thursday, Richard Ingrams talks to Peter O'Toole and also reopens the case of James Hanratty, hanged for murder in 1961. He also investigates what makes a good broadcast voice.

On Friday, Dame Clara Furse asks whether undue focus has been placed on the role of the banks in precipitating the financial crisis. She also explores the British tendency for self-deprecation and asks why girls are outperforming boys at school.

A tradition since 2003, the guest editors are responsible for between a third and a half of their programme's output and are helped to turn their ideas into radio journalism by Today's team of producers and reporters.

Previous Today programme guest editors include PD James, Tony Adams, Zadie Smith, Jarvis Cocker, Anthony Minghella, Professor Stephen Hawking and David Hockney.

Ceri Thomas, Editor of Today, has about this year's guest editors.

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Book Of The Week – Proust's Overcoat Ep 1/5

Bank Holiday Monday 27 December

9.45-10.00am ´óÏó´«Ã½ RADIO 4

Proust's Overcoat is the story of one man's pursuit of the relics of his literary hero, Marcel Proust.

Set in pre-war Paris, Jacques Guerin, a rich bibliophile with a passion for the late Marcel Proust has a chance encounter which leads him eventually to his quarry.

It was as a young man that he first encountered the Proust family when he was treated by the author's brother, Dr Robert Proust.

Visiting the doctor in his study he is told that the desk and bookshelves had belonged to the late author. The doctor opens the bookshelf to show the young man the handwritten notebooks in which his brother had drafted and re-drafted his great work.

A chance visit to a second-hand book dealer some years later reconnects Guerin with the Proust family and leads to a meeting with the man who was clearing out the apartment of the late Robert Proust.

Proust's wife, Marthe, had apparently instructed that all trace of the abominable Marcel should be removed and burnt. She had even gone through published volumes, tearing out Marcel's dedicatory signature.

And so begins Guerin's pursuit of the manuscripts and belongings of his hero which were eventually to lead him to the fur-lined overcoat which had accompanied Proust throughout most of his life including as a bedspread on the brass bed where he wrote In Search Of Lost Time.

Producer/Jill Waters for The Waters Company

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Woman's Hour Drama –
Ladies Of Letters Go Crackers Ep 1/5

Bank Holiday Monday 27 December to New Year's Eve Friday 31 December

10.45-11.00am ´óÏó´«Ã½ RADIO 4

Prunella Scales plays Irene in Ladies Of Letters

Prunella Scales and Anne Reid star in a festive series of returning comedy Ladies Of Letters, by Lou Wakefield and Carole Hayman, tracing the sometime rocky relationship conducted via correspondence between two women, Vera and Irene.

It's Christmas and the ladies are busy stuffing home-made turkey sausages and giving each other unsuitable Christmas presents. As family descend on both, pressure mounts and chaos ensues.

Returning from a trip to the Holy Land, Vera faces homelessness when a bank buys her home. Irene, meanwhile, is inundated with guests and annoyed that Vera seems too caught up in her own concerns to give her any attention.

In the second episode Irene holds back on her grievances with Vera's selfishness when Vera's daughter Karen has a serious health scare.

The women have a major falling out in Wednesday's episode after Vera's theories about Irene's relations cause family uproar.

In the penultimate episode Karen tries to get Vera and Irene back on speaking terms after their vitriolic falling out.

And in the final programme, Irene discovers her daughter-in-law's awful secret plan. Meanwhile Vera and her family face leaving their home without sufficient finances to ensure their future.

Anne Reid plays Vera, with Prunella Scales as Irene and Mia Soteriou as Karen.

Producer/Liz Webb for the ´óÏó´«Ã½

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In the summer of 2009, the British Antarctic Survey advertised for plumbers, carpenters, mechanics, electricians and doctors to spend 18 months working on their most southerly research stations, promising would-be candidates "the most exhilarating experience of a lifetime".

Almost 2,000 tradesmen applied to be sent into whiteout conditions. With doctors hired to care for their welfare in such extreme conditions.

In Plumbers And Penguins, Chris Eldon Lee follows the frozen fortunes of two of the recruits and their equally adventurous companions.

Mark Green, a 48-year-old plumber from Bristol, was sent to Halley Research Station on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula. His job is to keep water supplies going in temperatures of minus 50 celsius.

Thirty-year-old Claire Lehman, a recently qualified Wiltshire GP, was posted to Rothera, on the western shore of the peninsula. Both Mark and Claire have had to learn brand new skills to help keep their bases going.

Mark finds himself abseiling down precipitous crevasses and learning to be a sea-ice driver's mate. Claire is refuelling planes and supplying all the field scientists with freshly baked Christmas Cakes.

The programme follows the Antarctic year from Burns Night, in high summer, through the long dark winter to the 21 June mid-winter solstice, back into daylight and on towards Christmas.

Presenter and Producer/Chris Eldon Lee for Culturewise

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A Woman's World Ep 1/5

Bank Holiday Monday 27 to New Year's Eve 31 December

3.45-4.00pm ´óÏó´«Ã½ RADIO 4

This five-part series follows men who have jobs in predominately female workplaces.

It begins with Alex Douglas, the only male teacher at Sanquhar Primary School in Scotland, who talks about his campaign to involve fathers in their children's school.

Chris Ledgard meets Sanquhar staff, parents and children who talk about how Alex's good idea changed a school culture.

Tuesday's programme features Gareth Apajee, a nail bar worker from Swansea who tells Chris why he decided to train in the beauty industry and discusses the reaction of his family, colleagues and customers.

In the third programme, Chris talks to Andy Yelland, a male midwife. Andy and his wife Mandy – who is also a midwife – discuss attitudes towards men in their profession.

Graham Clarke talks about running a WRVS lunch club. The organisation, formerly known as the Women's Royal Voluntary Service, was once exclusively staffed by women but has worked hard to change its image and has been taking on male volunteers. The chief executive Lynne Berry discusses the balance between respecting the WRVS's history as a women's organisation, and establishing its new image in the modern world of big charity.

In the final programme Professor Jeff Hearn talks about his relationship with the academic world of Women's Studies. After a group of female staff at Bradford University set up the UK's second Women's Studies postgraduate course in the early Eighties, Jeff was asked to teach on it. Now a professor of Gender Studies in Sweden, he and his colleagues discuss his work as a man on the fringe of academic feminism.

Presenter and Producer/Chris Ledgard for the ´óÏó´«Ã½

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Mark Pougatch, live from Melbourne, and Rachel Burden, in the studio, present news from the UK including the latest from the business world, travel updates and the day's big sports stories. Plus news and updates from day two of the Fourth Ashes Test in Melbourne.

Presenters/Mark Pougatch and Rachel Burden, Producer/Scott Solder

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5 Live Sport

Bank Holiday Monday 27 December

2.00-4.30pm ´óÏó´«Ã½ RADIO 5 LIVE

Alastair Eykyn looks back at the second day of the Fourth Ashes Test in Melbourne and previews day three. There's also rugby union Premiership commentary on Leicester versus Sale and racing commentary from the Welsh National at Chepstow.

Presenter/Alastair Eykyn, Producer/Mike Carr

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5 Live Sport

Bank Holiday Monday 27 December

7.00-10.30pm ´óÏó´«Ã½ RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Chapman presents debate on all the big sports stories in The Monday Night Club.

From 8pm, there's live Premier League commentary on Arsenal versus Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium.

At 10pm there is discussion and reaction to tonight's matches in The Final Whistle.

Presenter/Mark Chapman, Producer/Mike Carr

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Highlights from the second day of the Fourth Test between Australia and England in Melbourne, including close-of-play analysis, come from Jonathan Agnew and Geoffrey Boycott, and are repeated every half hour.

Producer/Jen McAllister

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Test Match Special

Bank Holiday Monday 27 December

11.00pm-7.30am ´óÏó´«Ã½ RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary on the third day of the Fourth Ashes Test between Australia and England comes live from Melbourne.

Producer/Adam Mountford

´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Across the week, ´óÏó´«Ã½ 6 Music celebrates the "sound" of the past four decades, playing music from the ever-changing landscape of popular music, analysing the reasons behind the extraordinary developments from one decade to the next and putting context to the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Sound of 2011 announced in early January.

Marc Riley plays his favourite tunes from the Seventies along with some special highlights from John Peel's programmes in that decade. Marc plays session tracks from bands featured on his show from that era too.

Rob Hughes is in the studio with a copy of a music magazine from the Seventies in his Parallel Universe to tell Marc what the hot musical topics of the day were.

Presenter/Marc Riley, Producer/Michelle Choudhry

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In 1970, the smoking remnants from the Sixties psychedelic era lingered on, and despite the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the breakup of The Beatles, they were in for more of the same thing, "man".

But within a few years progressive and glam rock were all the rage, alongside the soft rock of Laurel Canyon and disco stateside. Then punk exploded on both sides of the Atlantic. By 1979, on the cusp of a new decade, it was a new-wave, post-punk world.

Broadcasting legend Bob Harris, who began his career behind the mic in 1970, charts the evolution of popular music, starting at year zero (1970) and explores how it started to fracture into different genres – prog rock, soft rock, glam rock, punk rock, ska, reggae, post punk and new wave.

Presenter/Bob Harris, Producer/Mike Hanson

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With punkish blues-rockers Nine Below Zero in concert and a Fairport Convention session from 1969, Gideon Coe's other archive sessions are provided by former Josef K front-man Paul Haig, experimental but melodic electronicist U-Ziq and Eska.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Mark Sheldon

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The multi-talented Julian Barratt helps Adam Buxton kick things off, with a show dedicated to weird and wonderfully flavoured music in the shape of Oddens.

Presenters/Adam Buxton, Producer/James Stirling

´óÏó´«Ã½ 6 Music Publicity

The station repeats it's Asian Network Presents Reality Check drama.

When Farzana Faruq enters the Big Brother house, she intends to use the experience to reveal her true self to her family at home in Yorkshire. As her dad gathers all the relatives and friends together to watch the first episode, he starts to find out secrets about his daughter – secrets that develop further the more he watches.

With her dad and brother observing her every move, Farzana's revelations in the diary room mean that deep secrets about her family start to unravel as her reality TV experience unfolds.

Reality Check is a current and original drama, which takes iconic aspects of the reality television show (the diary room, Big Brother's voice and infamous tasks) to build tensions between the housemates and Farzana's Asian community in Yorkshire.

The drama features Lena Kaur as Farzana, Nina Millns as Jem, David Bonnick Jr as Rob, Shiv Grewal as Lateef, Junade Khan as Waseem and Bhasker Patel as Dr Jawaid. Other members of the cast include Sagar Arya, Pushpinder Chani, Joe Doherty, Manjeet Mann, Chandeep Uppal and Elexi Walker.

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