Bells and Sunday Reading
PAT STARR reads a selection of Christmas poems.

The Word Mode Flesh
Is Christ still being ' born ' in the contemporary world? Timothy Raphael looks back at 1976 in search of an answer. Music: SMALL HUNDREDWEIGHT Presented by CLIVE JACOBS Producer DAVID WINTER
8.55 Weather

On the Feast of St Stephen from a London studio, conducted by REV EDWIN ROBERTSON on the theme of Christian witness and Communist response in Eastern Europe today.
Introit: In the world you shall have tribulation
Hymns: Father, hear the prayer we offer; Good King Wenceslas; Riseup,Omenof God ; God of grace
Bible Reading (J. B. Phillips translation): Acts 7, v 44 to 8, v la. With a section of the ST MARTIN'S SINGERS, Conducted by REV W. D. KENNEDY-BELL Organist BARRY pose

Bernard Falk reports on his nationwide search for people who have managed to find an antidote to the daily dose of depressing news by ' doing their own thing ' come what may. Producer MICHAEL EMBER (Repeated: Thursday 7.30 pm)

A light-hearted look at some of the more unusual aspects of our musical heritage. Written and compiled by Peter Gale and presented by Jonathan Cohen
Musicians are half-witted, merry and mad,
And those are the same that admire 'em.
They're fools if they play
Unless they've good pay. And others are block-heads to hire 'em.
(From the song Musick's a Crotchett, words by MR E. WARD ) With JOHN RYE. DIANA BISHOP and PETER GALE
Musicians: COLIN CRABB (flute) JAMES DAVIS (violin)
JONATHAN COHEN (piano)
Produced and directed by MICHAEL ROLFE
BBC Birmingham
(Repeated: Boxing Day, 7.5 am)

In this special end-of-the-year programme Auberon Waugh and Patricia Hodgson compete against Colin Welland and Ann Mallallieu. to see who can best remember the events and people who made the news in 1976. Why not test your memory against theirs?
Gordon Clough puts the queitions.
Editors JULIAN HOLLAND and JENNY ABRAMSKY

MICHAEL BARRATT inviteS
FRRD LOADS, BILL SOWERBUTTS and ALAN GEMMELL to answer listeners' questions. Questions to: Gardeners' Question Time, BBC Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9PX. Producer
KENNETH FORD BBC Manchester (Repealed: Tuesday 4.5 pm)

by A.A. Milne, adapted from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
with Derek Smith, Richard Goolden, Bernard Cribbins, Cyril Luckham, Hugh Paddick, William Fox
The Fraser Simson music has been arranged for this production by Peter Hope

(Toad of Toad Hall is at Her Majesty's Theatre, London, with Richard Goolden as Mole)

HUGH SCULLY takes ARTHUR NEGUS and BERNARD PRICE on an antique treasure hunt round Dyrham House, a National Trust property in south Gloucestershire. Producer
PAMELA howe BBC Bristol

Variety is the Spice of Life
PETER WHITE, with the help of some friends, presents his own special contribution to seasonal festivities.
Producer THENA HESHEL

A chance to hear again some of the people Brian Johnston met in recent months.
Producer ANTHONY SMITH BBC Bristol
(Repeated: Tuesday 11.5 am)

A selection of seasonal songs thatmadethecharts'in Great-Grandfather's day - not forgetting two piano pieces that sold a million.
Presented by Joseph Cooper Singers MARY THOMAS
PAT WHITMORE , CHARLES YOUNG CHARLES YOUNG SINGERS BBC CONCERT ORCHESTRA conductor ASHLEY LAWRENCE Devised and produced by CHARLES CHILTON

A seasonal look at the mirthful and memorable sayings of 1976 with James Cameron
Alan Coren. Germaine Greer Richard Ingrams
Quotations read by Ronald Fletcher. Devised and presented by Nigel Rees Producer JOHN LLOYD
(Rptd: Boxing Day: 2.30 pm)

A rhyming account of a suburban child's Christmas 40 years ago with musical embellishments.
Read by Nigel Anthony
Written and produced by MONICA FURLONG

CYNTHIA GLOVER (soprano) BBC CONCERT ORCHESTRA leader ARTHUR LEAVINS conductor ASHLEY LAWRENCE
A programme of operetta and ballet including music by Johann Strauss , Lionel Monk-ton, Lehár and Offenbach
Introduced by Bryan Martin

by Henry James
with Alec McCowen as The Biographer, Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies and Anna Cropper as the Misses Bordereau

'I can... arrive at the papers only by putting her off her guard, and I can put her off her guard only by ingratiating diplomatic practices. Hypocrisy, duplicity are my only chance. I am sorry for it, but for Jeffrey Aspern's sake I would do worse still.'

Dramatised for radio by Mary Hope Allen in conjunction with the producer and director Ian Cotterell
(Repeated: Tuesday 3.5 pm)
(Starting next Sunday: Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence)

The celebrated radio suspense thriller bv PATRICK HAMILTON with and What do I want? Well - that's more reasonable. I want to know, Mr Carruthers , whether I can interest you in giving me some money.'
This play was commissioned from the author of Rope and Gaslight in 1937 and broadcast many times since. This new production sets it in its original period.
London in the late 1930s.
Produced and directed by IHAUN MACLOUGHLIN

Upon the Feast of St Stephen Devised and narrated by H. COLIN DAVIS
Music: BBC SINGERS

preceded by Weather