presenters Brian Redhead and Peter Hobday
6.30, 7.30, 8.30 News Summary
7.0, 8.0 Today's News Read by cuve ROSLIN
7.25* 8.25* Sport
7.45* Thought for the Day
8.35* Yesterday in Parliament
8.50* Your Letters

A Radio News production by ADAM RAPHAEL

A Family Affair by ALPHONSE DAUDET translated by HARRY BELL Read by David March

Advent Calendar:
The Prophecies of Isaiah
NEM, p 42; The advent of our King (BBC HB 39); Sleepers, awake! (Anthems for Choirs 1); Isaiah 40, w 1-11; Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates (BBC HB 34). Stereo

A portrait of Alison Uttley , the creator of Little Grey Rabbit, Sam Pig , Brock the Badger and other much-loved animal characters, who was born 100 years ago, on 17 December 1884. with Elizabeth Proud as Alison Uttley and Sean Barrett as the Narrator
'I was a snow-baby, a lucky baby, they said, born just before Christmas in the great storm. Snow was part of my life, and it would always attract me and bring magic to me, magic of fairytale, and snow crystals and miracles of ice flowers on the windows.' Denis Judd , her official biographer, makes use of previously unpublished diaries and extracts from the books themselves to tell the story of Alison Uttley and to evoke the season of Christmas in which she was bom and which, throughout her long life (she died aged 91), remamed, for her, the most treasured of all seasons of the year.
Producer ALAN HAYDOCK
Stereo • FEATURE: page 76

Surrounded by garrulous geckos calling 'stop that', red grouse warning 'go back', and servals who just manage 'yum yum yum', Michael Jordan wonders whether the English language is spreading faster than we think.
Producer MELINDA BARKER BBC Bristol

It's All Right for Some
Christmas can be the most acutely lonely period for some people. Trevor Barnes talks to people who suffer from loneliness, those who help, and those who've found their own solutions.
Producer JO DOBRY
0 HELPLINES: page 77

Presenter Brian Widlake

Grandma Goes to a Party (5)

Introduced from Manchester by Debi Davies
Santa Claus was based on a Red Indian, and who said there were three kings anyway? GRAEME DONALD disputes a few of our beloved beliefs.
It May be All Right on the Night PHIL SMITH joins a homespun Christmas entertainment in the village hall.
Producer DIANA STENSON BBC Manchester
Sketches from Diplomatic Life 4: Frying the Flag

An 18-part serialisation of JOHN MASTERS' saga of the Savage family from 1825 to 1946.
Book Three: The Lotus and the Wind dramatised in four parts by DAVID WADE with and 3: Levels of Deception
The black wind hissed steadily as Robin Savage entered the wilderness. There he might find a solution to the public problem: there he might find a solution to his personal mystery: there he might find the Russians.
Directed by PENNY LEICESTER
(Juliet Stevenson is a member of the RSC) Stereo

Off the Record ...
Roger Worsley with his own early hit list of music hall recording pioneers and eccentricities.
Producer KATE FENTON

Written and compiled by FRANK DOHERTY
Young, gifted and popular,
Dr William Dodd seems well placed for a brilliant career in the church. But when he finds himself on a capital charge, even the advocacy of Dr Johnson is not enough to save him from the gallows. Narrator BRIAN TRUEMAN Cast includes:
Producer FRASER STEEL BBC Manchester

The Lovely Lady (2)

Presenters Gordon Clough and Susannah Simons continued on VHF/FM 5.50-5.55

With BRIAN PERKINS including Financial Report

From the land of snow, sleighs and Santa, Clive Jacobs and team investigate travel and transport in Denmark. Producer IRENE MALUS
Editor ROGER MACDONALD

• FEATURE: page 76

Margaret Howard presents her selection of extracts from BBC radio and television programmes over the past seven days.
Producer ANNA PARKINSON
(Repeated: Sat 10.30 am) Stereo

In the last of the series
Nigel Rees examines the way the newspapers have behaved this week.
Producer EMILY BUCHANAN

The Rt Hon David Steel , mp David Frost
The Rt Hon Enoch Powell , mp and Lord Soper
Chairman John Timpson from London
Producer CAROLE STONE BBC Bristol

Keep cutting your cholesterol, say the experts - just as the Christmas eating binge beckons. Show more

by Alistair Cooke

The Adventures of Mazeppa and the Sugar Plum Fairy Last night the Royal Ballet presented a gala performance of Peter Wright 's new staging of Tchaikovsky's ballet The
Nutcracker, while the English National Opera premiered a new production of Tchaikovsky's rarely performed opera Mazeppa. Michael Billington takes a look at the productions, both before and after the first night. Producer JOHN POWELL

Just Resting (5)

Presented by Richard Kershaw

An irreverently critical look back at the week's news with Bill Wallis , David Tate
Sally Grace and Jon Glover Written by IAN BROWN , RICHARD QUICK.
PAUL B. DAVIES , MARTIN BOOTH,
PETE SINCLAIR. STUART SILVER,
DAVID COHEN , PETER HICKEY and others
Producer PAUL SPENCER

followed by an interlude