BARNABY RUDGE: Radio 4FM, Sunday, December 3, 2.30pm. Charles Dickens’s story of murder, violence and religious intolerance is adapted in a three-part series for radio, giving an airing to one of his less well-known works. Set against a background of religious riots in London in the late 18th century, the story explores the nature of the violence of the crowd, the individual and the state.
PETER PAN: Radio 4FM, Sunday, December 3, 7.00pm. This four-part presentation of JM Barrie’s story promises to sweep away any “Edwardian sentimentality and Disney-fication” that has become attached to the character of Peter Pan. Instead this adaptation returns to the original text, performed by a regular Christmas panto cast, including Roy Hudd, June Whitfield and Toyah Willcox.
EQUINOX - ON JUPITER: Channel 4, Sunday, December 3, 7.00pm. This science documentary series looks at the mysteries of Jupiter, a few days before the Galileo Atmosphere Probe is due to send back information about the planet. The probe has taken six years to reach Jupiter, providing pictures and information for scientists on its journey. The Galileo probe will continue its observations for two years, including a trip to one of the planet’s moons that appears to have an ice-covered ocean. The programmes speculate as to whether any life could exist within it.
THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA: THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE. Radio 4FM, Wednesday, December 6, 8.30pm. This series considers American history from a black perspective, looking this week at the post-First World War era, when jazz music and the New York club scene brought black music to a white audience - a process which also brought about divisions within the black community.
HANDS UP: Channel 4, Thursday, December 7, 8.00pm. Exclusions from school have risen by 70 per cent in the past two years, claims this edition of the education documentary series. Among these are children as young as five, and the programme reports on the long-term impact of losing time in school at such a formative age.
RICHARD III: Channel 4, Friday, December 8, 9.00am. “Shakespeare has never been treated better in the cinema,” wrote the TES, reviewing Laurence Olivier’s adaptation on its release in 1955. Olivier starred, directed and produced the film, receiving an Oscar nomination for best actor, and a critical consensus that this was the best of his Shakespeare adaptations. It also features John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson.
