(B'cast on Christmas Sunday)

A holiday edition, with the latest news in football and racing

This December the fabled Dame Angela Marvell celebrates her 70th birthday. In conversation with Peter France she and the legendary Sir Kenneth Shandy share memories of their long and distinguished stage partnership, and recreate some of their famous performances together.
Also taking part: JACK GRIFFIN
KENNETH WILLIAMS ARTHUR MARSHALL Producer
PAMELA HOWE BBC Bristol
(Rptd: New Year's Eve, 4.5 pm)

Short story by CHARLES DICKENS Read by Andrew Cruickshank Producer john CARDY

Esther Rantzen. Kenneth Rob inson and Fritz Spiegl
Producer MICHAEL GILLIAM

Holly and mistletoe, robins and turkeys, don't just appear on our Christmas cards: today the team puts on its paper hats to discuss your questions about Christmas wildlife.
Introduced by DEREK JONES Producer DILYS BREESE BBC Bristol

NEM, p 97; 0 word of God incarnate (BBC HB 191); Psalm 119, vv 105-112 (bcp); John 1, vv 1-14 (rsv); The blessed son of God (Carols for Choirs 36)

Bryan Forbes reviews the Passing Year in the World of Entertainment including Live Theatre Extracts from:

Banana Ridge (Ben Travers) with Robert Morley, George Cole, Vivienne Martin (from the Savoy Theatre)

The Circle (W. Somerset Maugham) with Googie Withers, John McCallum and Bill Fraser (from the Theatre Royal, Haymarket)

Otherwise Engaged (Simon Gray) with Michael Gambon and Rosemary Martin (from the Comedy Theatre)

Traditionally the French Foreign Legion offered an escape after a failed love affair. There are varying descriptions of the men who have made up its ranks. Some describe them as a brutal band of ex-criminals choosing the Legion as an alternative to prison. Others rate them as some of the elite soldiers of the world.
Julian Manyon talks to men who have served in the Legion. Some completed their tours of duty, others escaped because they could stand it no longer. Producer DAVID SHUTE BBC Birmingham

Roy Plomley's castaway is clown Charlie Cairoli. Show more

12.55
Weather and programme newt VHF Regional news and weather

Gordon dough

(B'cost on Christmas Sunday)

with Peter Marinker, David March, Martin Jarvis and Caroline John
'Why had he a clutch of terror as though someone was whispering to him that he must turn tail and run? Nothing could be more lovely than that town basking in the mellow afternoon light, and yet he was afraid at the sight of it...'

Kenneth More reads The Inexperienced Ghost
A short story by H. G. Wells

How, on what, and when do people in other countries spend their money - and what do they seek from life?
Four of the BBC's foreign correspondents, home for Christmas, talk about the living standards of the people in the areas which they cover, and compare them with those they find in Britain.
Angus McDermid (United States) Philip Short (Soviet Union) Clive Small (South Africa) David Willey (Italy)
In the chair John Hosken Producer PADDY O'KEEFFE

VHF Regional news and weather

by P.G. Wodehouse
starring Michael Hordern as Jeeves and Richard Briers as Bertie Wooster with Vivian Pickles as Aunt Dahlia and Stephen Moore as Tuppy Glossop

(Repeated: Wed 11.5 am)
(Michael Hordern is a National Theatre player; Stephen Moore is in "Dirty Linen" at the Arts Theatre Club, London)

(Repeated: Tuesday 1.30 pm)

John Julius Norwich plays some of his favourite records and explains why they give him particular pleasure,

GALLANT COLONEL (at Dinner Party): ' Your daughters, my dear Mrs Tympanum , are looking simply delightful tonight! ' MRS TYMPANUM (rather hard of hearing and very intent on a r6ti of duckling): ' Yes, aren't they. I've had them stuffed with sage and onions! '
Basil Boothroyd casts a mystified glance at what amused the Victorians and Edwardians Cast: MICHAEL MCCLAIN and JO MANNING WILSON
Written by BASIL BOOTHROYD Producer BOBBY JAYE
(Rptd: New Year's Eve 10.5 am)

Design for Living by NOEL COWARD
' The actual facts are ao simple. I love you. You love me. You love Otto. I love Otto. Otto loves you. Otto loves me, There now! ... '
Edited for radio by GUY VAESEN Produced and directed by IAN COTTERELL

1976 - the year in which James Hunt conquered the world of motor racing.... the year when David Wilkie and John Curry struck gold for Britain. But it was also a year which left Britain with many questions to be answered in 1977. Will England qualify for the World Cup finals? Will Scotland win through? What of the challenge from Wales and Northern Ireland? Can the British Lions do it again in New Zealand? Can England's cricketers regain the Ashes when the Australians return again this summer?
JOHN ARLOTT , one of radio's most celebrated broadcasters, takes a reflective look at the sporting scene in the company of friends and colleagues, many of whom have either made or written the sporting headlines in 1976. A Radio Sports Unit production

A musical entertainment based on the poems of Sir John Betjeman with Rowland Davies, John Gould, Gay Soper and Barry Stokes
Words by Sir John Betjeman
Produced for radio from David Benedictus's stage production by Simon Brett

(Rowland Davies. John Gould, Gay Soper and Barry Stokes are in 'Betjemania' at the Shaw Theatre, London)

preceded by Weather