Sara Cox, our regular Breakfast Show dep and current Sounds Of The 80s host, takes the reins of a brand new late night live show from Monday to Thursday 10 pm–midnight. This is a welcome return for us to late night live programming with a show that will be full of content from the world of arts and entertainment with guests straight from the stage and a great mix of music. Sara will of course retain her occasional day job of covering for Chris Evans on Breakfast.

It doesn’t stop there either as O J Borg carries on the live broadcasting banner with another new show midnight–3am, Monday to Friday from Salford. Again there will be a brilliant mix of music for everyone who is around at this time of night and is looking for the best company and chat on the airwaves. We’re responding to listener feedback with the return to live overnight programming five nights a week, and savings elsewhere on the network have allowed us to do this.

Gary Davies, who returned to radio as a part of Sara Cox’s Danceathon for Comic Relief joins Radio 2 to present this weekly Friday night show. Gary needs no introduction to our listeners and this is his first full time return to radio broadcasting since he left Radio 1 several decades ago. Welcome back Gary!

Cerys Matthews joins the Radio 2 fold when she takes over the Blues Show from Paul Jones who is leaving the network after many years as the regular host. I’d like to wish Paul the very best and thank him for igniting and then keeping the Blues flame alive on Radio 2 for many years. Cerys is an expert music curator, with a genuine and deep passion for Blues music (not to mention a vinyl collection that runs into the thousands), and I’m sure she’ll bring a new twist to our Blues programming, with a few surprises thrown in. We look forward very much to welcoming her to this programme, which will be presented live in its new slot of 8pm–9pm on Monday evenings.

Our specialist programming is also expanding into new areas and I am thrilled to be able to announce that Johnnie Walker will be hosting a new long-running rock series later this year, whilst Ana Matronic’s Disco Devotion will broaden its remit to include a more diverse dance mix in a new show: ‘Ana Matronic’s Dance Devotion’. These are two areas our listeners have constantly asked us to expand on and cover more from their respective arenas. There can hardly be a better way to look at these genres than under the expert guidance of these two presenters who have a wealth of knowledge in these areas.

Obviously to deliver this much increased commitment to live broadcasting and to refresh our specialist genres, we have to make many changes to create the space and so we are resting the 30 minute The Organist Entertains and Listen To The Band programmes for the time being. They have been long serving programmes on Radio 2 but as the audience evolves we have to reflect what best serves their needs and where there is scope to broaden our offering. Keyboard music will remain on the network with Rick Wakeman’s Key To Keys as an occasional series and Brass music features heavily in Clare Teal’s Sunday night big band show as well as in Friday Night Is Music Night, which will feature the Young Brass Soloist award. We have also commissioned a series on Brass music to run later this year. In the meantime, however we thank Nigel Ogden and Frank Renton for all their incredible dedication and commitment over the years.

We are very excited to be bringing you this new schedule and hope that you will see our changes are designed to keep Radio 2 moving forward and giving our millions of listeners the programming that they want.

Lewis Carnie is Head of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2.

• Read the press release ' on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Centre

I don't get a call any more asking me if I'd like to accompany the First Lady of British Theatre to New York for three days to cover the Tony Awards for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2.

It's now the third year of us going and, instead, I just get an email early in the year reminding me that it's about time I started looking at logistics.

Like I'd forget! The planning starts in February, and then early June comes around before we know it, and we're off to what Lin Manuel-Miranda calls 'the greatest city in the world' in the lyrics to last year's 11-time Tony Award-winning musical, Hamilton.

I'm sure Elaine would join me in saying that we love this trip. It's the highlight of our working year. A fantastic opportunity for us to make a unique programme which marries Elaine's expertise and popularity in the Broadway community with a host of exciting new show tunes from the Great White Way. And some great star interviews too.

As the producer of Elaine Paige On Sunday, I make sure that Elaine is talking about current Broadway shows all year long. Then in May, when the Tony nominations are announced, we sit down and choose the three productions we want to see on our annual visit. And so a year's worth of build-up gets realised in our special two hour highlights show when Elaine reveals to her audience just what she thinks of this season on Broadway.

This year has delivered a diverse and exciting crop of new musicals. We chose to go and see the uplifting Come From Away, the beautifully emotive Dear Evan Hansen, and the juggernaut that is the Hello Dolly! revival, which stars Elaine's friend Bette Midler. We both really enjoyed all three, although Hello Dolly! is truly in a league of its own.

I was incredibly fortunate after seeing Hello Dolly! to join Elaine as she spent some time with Bette Midler backstage at the Shubert Theater. For such a global star it was a distinctly average dressing room, guarded by a minder called Jose -  a detective for the NYPD by day.

After a short wait and a glass of pink champagne, Ms Midler sashayed in looking a million dollars after her seventh tour de force performance of the week in a career-capping turn as the show's central character- the meddlesome matchmaker Dolly Levi.

"This is my radio producer, Jess," Elaine said politely. "Jeff?" Ms Midler turned to me and replied "Your name is Jeff?"

“No - J... Oh, never mind. You can call me what you like!”

They immediately got talking. What a huge privilege it was for me to be there as the only other person in the room for what was a truly priceless conversation between two legends. They covered politics, theatre, singing technique, and a lot more besides. As we left, Elaine laid it on the line - "Bette, I'm backstage at the awards on Sunday night - I know you're not giving interviews but I insist you come and speak to me; just a few words is all I need, for my radio show..."

And Bette said she would.

Sunday came and, backstage at the 71st Tony Awards, Elaine spoke to the likes of Gavin Creel the 'Best Featured Actor in a Musical', Christopher Ashley the 'Best Director of a Musical' and Cynthia Nixon the 'Best Featured Actress in a Play'. Business was brisk, but at the end of the evening things took a wonderfully exciting turn when, out of nowhere, we got a message saying that Bette Midler - now the newly crowned 'Best Leading Actress in a Musical' - had requested to speak to Elaine downstairs...

So off we shot, past a throng the length of a Glastonbury loo queue, to a…. stairwell.

Surely we aren't interviewing Bette Midler in a stairwell?!

Yes we are - and gather yourselves because she's on her way. No, actually - BANG - she's right here - go!

Bette was bouncing off the walls, Tony in hand. Moments earlier she’d hollered on stage - in front of a TV audience of 6.1 million - "Shut that crap off!" as the music had begun to play her off as she was delivering her acceptance speech. She was screeching with excitement at Elaine, who was equally over the moon. My brilliant colleague Paul Mann (assistant producer on Steve Wright in the Afternoon) had the unenviable task of capturing the whole thing on our portable recorder. And there I am; nervous, shattered, exhilarated Jeff from Dover, running up and down the staircase on tiptoes trying to stop the silver service waiting staff from noisily clattering their trays of canapés all over my prize interview.

Not an episode I'll forget in a long while.

Other highlights of our trip included meeting 91-year-old stage and screen legend Dame Angela Lansbury in the foyer of the Music Box Theater where, like us, she was patiently waiting in line to see the same performance of Dear Evan Hansen.

Plus, during our interview with Pasek & Paul - Dear Evan Hansen’s Tony-winning composers who also won an Oscar for La La Land - another lovely moment was the thrill on Benj Pasek's face when Elaine gave him a virtuoso rendition of 'Happy Birthday' when Justin Paul told her that Benj was 32 years old that day.

Then there was the honour of attending the Tony’s dress rehearsal at the Radio City Music Hall where we had a sneak preview of all the action, saw the ceremony host Kevin Spacey running through his big opening number, and watched the stars off-guard.

You can hear 'The Tony Awards with Elaine Paige' on Friday night from 8pm, or on Sunday afternoon from 1pm. It features interviews with Tim Minchin - composer of Groundhog Day The Musical, Jerry Zaks - director of Hello Dolly!, and of course THAT whirlwind conversation with the star of the show, Bette Midler.

And P.S. Elaine, if you're reading this, thank you for everything - you make working at Radio 2 amazing. Here's to next year. Love, Jeff xx

• to Elaine Paige's highlights from the 2017 Tony Awards on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 from 8pm on Friday 16 June 2017

To mark Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2’s 50th anniversary the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 Feel Good Gardens were presented at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Garden designers Sarah Raven, James Alexander-Sinclair, Jon Wheatley, Matt Keightley and design duo Kate Savill and Tamara Bridge created five gardens to"uplift the senses and encourage people to lose themselves among a feast of sights, scents, sounds, flavours and textures".

The gardens were named after different Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 Presenters. Featured gardens were: The Chris Evans Taste Garden designed by Jon Wheatley; The Jo Whiley Scent Garden designed by Tamara Bridge; The Anneka Rice Colour Cutting Garden designed by Sarah Raven; The Jeremy Vine Texture Garden  designed by Matt Keightley; and The Zoe Ball Listening Garden, designed by James Alexander-Sinclair.

With one day of this year's festival left to go the Radio 2 gardens have already had a large amount of visitors - including a Royal visit:

• Read the press release

In 2013 the first C2C: Country to Country festival was held at the O2 in London. After many years of country music being the domain of a niche but loyal fan base, a new audience had started to discover the music, and country was becoming cool. With the UK’s voice of Country music ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris at the helm, Radio 2 became the broadcast partner for the festival, making two programmes of C2C highlights for its regular Bob Harris Country slot.

After two years of doing this however, it was becoming apparent the UK’s increasingly enthusiastic and ever growing audience were wanting even more. And then we had a thought. We knew that Radio 2’s four day pop-up station devoted to the Eurovision song contest had been a huge hit with the Eurovision fans, so why didn’t we do something similar for Country music? We could broadcast the festival live and exclusively on our own pop-up...

Fast forward to 2017 and, with its third incarnation just around the corner, Radio 2 Country is now the most successful music pop-up DAB ever provided by Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio. Certainly on our launch day in 2015 we had an incredible audience response on social media – and the reaction then and in 2016 was resoundingly positive with the overwhelming sentiment on twitter being “Radio 2 Country - #makeitpermanent”!

We know that one of the biggest reasons for our listeners to tune in is our live coverage of performances from the C2C festival. Across three days this year, twelve of the biggest country acts in the world will take to the main stage at the O2, and Radio 2 Country is the only place you can hear it all broadcast live. This year coverage includes performances from one of country music’s biggest selling artists of all time, Reba McEntire; multimillion selling artist Brad Paisley; genre defying country rock group the Zac Brown Band; CMA New Artist 2016 Maren Morris and traditional country royalty - Marty Stuart - with his band of ace musicians, The Fabulous Superlatives. In between these acts our on-air Radio 2 country team, made up of Bob Harris, Baylen Leonard, Jo Whiley, Paul Sexton and Bobbie Pryor will be on hand with all the backstage action, including interviews and live sessions with some of the bands appearing on the festival’s other stages, including our very own Radio 2 Country stage.

When we’re not live from the O2, Radio 2 country will be broadcasting a rich variety of programmes which really show the wide spectrum of country music. Some of Nashville’s biggest stars will be taking a turn behind the microphone including Reba McEntire (Reba’s Gospel Hour), Marty Stuart (Marty Stuart’s Country Pickers) and Alison Krauss (Bluegrass and Beyond).

We’ve also invited the UK’s only digital country station Chris Country onto the pop-up. Fronted by broadcaster Chris Stevens, Chris Country first launched online in 2013 and on digital radio two years later. A massive country fan, Chris is a huge advocate of the music and artists here in the UK and it’s great to have him involved in Radio 2 Country.

And of course Radio 2’s own presenters will be out in force showing off their country credentials – with programmes from country experts Ricky Ross, Patrick Kielty and Bob Harris. Plus this year we welcome Trevor Nelson who will be taking listeners into the musical space where Country meets Soul; Sara Cox presents a country version of her popular Sounds of the 80s show; comedian and country fan Susan Calman looks at the comedy of country and plays ‘classic’ tracks such as ‘You’re the reason our kids are ugly’ and ‘Did I shave my legs for this?’; Mark Radcliffe pays tribute to one of his musical heroes, Hank Williams, and Colin Murray literally takes to a barstool to explore country music’s fascination with all things alcoholic.

But it’s not all about cowboys, whiskey and beer. If you’re someone who thinks they don’t like country music then prepare to be surprised. The tentacles of country music stretch far and wide …Lady Gaga, Al Green, The Rolling Stones, Leonard Cohen - listen out because they all make a musical appearance at some point across the four days. And if that’s not enough to make you retune your digital radio there’s always the John Denver and Miss Piggy duet. I’m not joking…

Al Booth is Editor, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 Production.

• Radio 2 Country launches at midday on Thursday 9th March on .
• Find out more about the pop up station on the .
• Follow Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 Country on and/or .
• .

Former Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 DJ Sir Jimmy Young has died today. 

Jimmy spent almost three decades at Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 and was part of the original Radio 1 line-up when the station launched in 1967.
He began presenting on Radio 2 in 1973.

Bob Shennan, Director of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio, of Jimmy, “he was a truly unique broadcaster who pioneered a form of presenting that generations have followed. He made Current Affairs relevant to millions of listeners and helped shape Radio 2 into the station it is today.” Director General Tony Hall added, "Jimmy Young defined Radio 2 and was a true broadcasting pioneer. He will be dearly missed by his many fans."

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 presenter Ken Bruce , "So very sad to hear about the death of my old friend Sir Jimmy Young. One of the most able broadcasters I ever worked with."

We've collected some of our favourite pictures from the archive in this blog post. 

For anyone that loves musical theatre, there's no greater call to get than the one which asks if you'd go to New York for three days with Elaine Paige to cover The Tony Awards for Radio 2. It was the second year for us, along with assistant producer James Carpenter from the Breakfast Show, and this season had an air of inevitability about it as the 16-time nominated musical Hamilton was expected to sweep the board. The lone exception was that “Leading Actress in a Musical” was always tipped to belong to British star Cynthia Erivo for her astonishing Broadway debut in The Color Purple.

All of that came true, but please carry on reading anyway...

The Tonys are a big deal in the States. They celebrate the best of both straight plays and musicals, but unlike here in London, Broadway has a designated theatre season which revolves around The Tonys, and the telecast of the show, which this year was hosted by our very own James Corden, is watched by millions. My challenge, as I see it, is to make a very American event accessible to a British audience, and my key weapon in achieving that is Elaine Paige. Elaine is an icon on Broadway, she's revered and lauded there to the point where it can be hard to manoeuvre around in public - but the respect she garners means booking guests for our highlights show is a cakewalk as everyone wants to meet her. Indeed when she interviewed Rory O’Malley who plays George The Third in Hamilton he said it was a real honour to speak to theatre royalty – that from a king!

We stepped straight off the plane and into the Music Box Theater to see the musical Shuffle Along, which was nominated 10 times but came away empty-handed. In the interval, we were taken to see a tiny secret vault which housed a piano that Irving Berlin played during The Prohibition. Elaine loved that and she fitted nicely into the chamber...

Our first full day was a complete whirlwind, beginning with a visit to Cynthia Erivo's dressing room - she has a very serene way about her and she gave us a lovely interview in which she told us that Spielberg's been calling about the possibility of her doing a film with him. Then in quick succession came the two things both Elaine and I had been dreaming of - meeting the cast and creatives of Hamilton, and James Corden. Hamilton is an absolute phenomenon over there. The buzz around its creator and star Lin Manuel-Miranda has been likened to Beatlemania, and getting a piece of the show right now at the peak of its popularity was an experience I'll never forget. We both watched it in complete awe, somewhat huddled together because of the ferocious air conditioning, before interviewing its cast, and as an added bonus, we chatted backstage to basketball legend Magic Johnson (pictured above) who was also in to see it.  

James Corden was always intended as our star guest - and I wanted to find a way to reflect both his meteoric rise and his British roots, so I asked him and Elaine if they'd perform. I didn't expect two yeses but that's what I got, and the result was truly joyful. James said it was a dream achieved. They also had a little spat about the lyrics to “Memory” which James said he doesn’t understand. Elaine said that Barbra Streisand felt exactly the same, and since Barbra was at the Tonys for the first time in 46 years, Elaine was geographically close to having a chance to explain them to her in person, just as she did to James. James was charming, erudite, humble and down to earth, and we are both forever fans now.  

The following day Elaine interviewed the singer songwriter Sara Bareilles who's written the musical Waitress. It's set in a diner where they make pies, and when we saw the show in the evening we were thrilled to discover that pie-baking odours are piped into the foyer. Well, I was. Sara hadn't heard of Mary Berry though. Shocking.

We also went to a rehearsal room on 42nd Street where we met Andrew Lloyd Webber who was overseeing a rehearsal of his upcoming Broadway production of Cats. Elaine had a Grizabella to Grizabella chat with the show's new lead; Leona Lewis, then Elaine was thrown in front of the whole company to talk about her time prowling around on all fours in a fake fur coat. Andrew - or "my understudy" as we like to call him after he sat in for Elaine for one performance only on Radio 2 back in January - chatted about how impressive it is that Hamilton has reinvented the musical, and Elaine grilled him about Cats and School of Rock in a way that only someone who knows him well would dare.

Sunday was Awards day, and the landscape of the occasion and its celebratory feel was irrevocably altered by the tragedy in Orlando. But the show went on, and we were positioned a couple of blocks away from the Beacon Theatre ceremony in a school classroom which we'd commandeered to do our winners' interviews. There Elaine chatted to 92-year-old Lifetime Achievement Award recipient; lyricist Sheldon Harnick who has two revivals on Broadway this season - Fiddler on the Roof and She Loves Me. She also interviewed, amongst others, Hollywood legend Frank Langella who shared some great advice for actors. Plus Cynthia Erivo, Tony in hand, brought her Mum back for a selfie with Elaine.

For a lifelong musical theatre fan, this project is a true career highlight. Quite apart from going to the best city in the world, seeing three Broadway shows in three days and meeting the great and good of international theatre, Elaine is the most wonderful colleague, and every moment spent with her makes ordinary life seem uneventful.

I'll end as I began - what an opportunity. And it's not up for grabs!

Radio 2 is the Tony Awards' official broadcast partner, and - which is on Friday at 8pm and repeated Sunday at 1pm - is the only UK coverage.

• Listen "

The represents one of the biggest nights in the UK’s folk music calendar, and tomorrow night, in their 17th year, the event will be held in the splendid surroundings of Royal Albert Hall in London.

The awards, hosted once again by Radio 2’s Mark Radcliffe and singer and musician Julie Fowlis, celebrate the absolute best of the UK’s thriving folk music scene, and over the last few years familiar names in the nominees’ lists have been joined by a new wave of folk artists.

This year, more than ever, the number of new names dominating the nominations really does reflect how exciting, vital and creative this genre of music has become. And many of these artists are pushing the boundaries of folk music, and bringing with them a new generation of music fan. Lynched and Stick in the Wheel, two acts in the Best Group category, have their roots in punk and electronic music respectively and Folk Singer of the Year nominee Rhiannon Giddens , from North Carolina, blends jazz, country, blues, gospel and world music to create a distinctive style which is winning her legions of fans inside and outside the folk world.

Whilst the awards celebrate the best new music of the last 12 months, they also honour key figures whose influence has helped to shape folk music in this country. This year’s Lifetime achievement awards go to two women whose contrasting musical styles reflect the breadth of the folk genre. Joan Armatrading, with one of the outstanding voices in British music since the Seventies blending folk, rock, blues and jazz styles has influenced a generation of singer-songwriters. Norma Waterson was a key figure in the British folk revival of the early Sixties with North Yorkshire vocal group The Watersons. Her influence has been felt throughout British folk music for decades, through her Mercury nominated solo albums and her collaborations with daughter Eliza and husband Martin Carthy. Beloved in the Folk World Norma’s performance on tomorrow night’s show will doubtless be a moment to remember.

One of the most hotly contested categories of the night is the Young Folk Award, which has provided the springboard for many careers including those of Bella Hardy, Jim Moray and Tim van Eyken. Radio 2 is proud to support young musicians, not just through the Young Folk Award, but with the annual Young Chorister competition and the Radio 2 Young Brass Award, which just last week saw 21-year-old euphonium player Daniel Thomas from Rhymney, South Wales pick up the title for 2016.

The Folk Awards is one of the key events that I work on as Editor of Specialist music at Radio 2, a role in which I also oversee more than a dozen programmes including the weekly jazz, country, rhythm and blues, brass band, big band, orchestral and organ music shows. It’s a job which puts me right at the heart of Radio 2’s distinctive and diverse output, and it’s hugely rewarding to work with passionate music experts in these specialist fields, both in-house and from independent production companies. I also get the opportunity to set up exciting new music projects, like the recent DAB pop up stations Radio 2 Country (which broadcast live coverage from the Country to Country festival) and Radio 2 50s, which ran in April as a part of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Music My Generation series. Marty Wilde, Imelda May, Len Goodman and Mark Radcliffe all presented programmes so if you didn’t catch it, do listen again via Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer Radio on .

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 broadcasts over 1,100 hours of specialist music each year, including 260 hours of live music. In the past year we’ve had many superb sessions on the Radio 2 Folk Show including sets from The Unthanks, Lau and Fishermans’ Friends.

Radio 2 also plays a greater variety of music than any other radio station in the UK with 4,423 different tracks every month, including specialist music tracks which can be heard in our daytime programmes. Radio 2 gives its audience a radio station like no other and we’re very lucky that our listeners are so appreciative and supportive of what we do.

The Folk Awards will be broadcast live on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 from 7.30pm and Simon Mayo will also be presenting a specially extended Drivetime show live from the venue at 5pm. You can also watch online via the , on iPlayer from Thursday morning and the Red Button from Saturday.

Al Booth is Editor of Specialist music at Radio 2

Our pop-up digital radio service returns from today (Thursday 10 March) and will feature special broadcasts live from the at The O2 in London.

I believe Radio 2 effectively created what is now termed UK Country due to our support of this “specialist” genre, so I thought now would be a good occasion to write about Radio 2’s distinctive music policy.

Every week Radio 2’s playlist team of producers gather and look at adding new music to the most impactful radio station new release playlist in the world - Radio 2 reaches 15.5 million listeners every week.

It’s a big responsibility but also a great opportunity to play what we think will be great new “hits” to our audience’s ears. In order to find those songs we mine a the broad range of music out there and seek the views of all our team and the specialist producers. 

A few years ago, Radio 2 certainly played country music but there was no definable UK country artist. But through our playlist support we found The Shires and through our specialist music programming, via curators like Bob Harris, we found Ward Thomas and then introduced both bands to daytime support. Both have gone on to great success on record and live.

Jamie Cullum initially supported Gregory Porter via his weekly jazz show on Radio 2. We then worked with his record label to help find tracks that kept Gregory’s integrity as a great jazz vocalist but would appeal to a daytime audience via our new release playlist. Gregory has gone on to return to his native America as a UK success story thanks to our support.

You may find a Gregory Porter or a Shires track on your local commercial radio station but that is because we gave them their earliest breaks and we are proud of our part in their success. At Radio 2 we pride ourselves in being advocates and supporters of the UK music industry. We were championing artists like Rumer, Paloma Faith, Thea Gilmore, Caro Emerald and Andreya Triana long before anyone else. They’ve all since gone on to carve out successful careers.

Radio 2 broadcast over 1,100 hours of specialist music programming last year.  We can easily shout about how distinctive our music programming is after 7pm in the evening with amazing curators hosting amazing music shows from most genres across the musical spectrum. But I am also very proud of the broad range of genres and music that we broadcast during the daytime hours from 6am to 7pm every single day.

Radio 2 provides listeners with a huge range of popular music forms not provided by commercial radio, challenging audiences to experience the unfamiliar within the context of familiar and well-loved musical repertoire.

Not only do we broadcast the biggest range of genres of any station throughout the day but most of that music is only played on Radio 2. Through our research we know that Radio 2 plays a wider variety of music covering a wider range of genres, with significantly less repetition than commercial radio. Due to our success you might well hear of our biggest recent successes elsewhere, but Radio 2 has been alone in supporting great blues in the daytime by Reuben James Richards and Joe Bonamassa, terrific new soul by Shaun Escoffery and great folk music by Bellowhead. All artists nurtured by Radio 2 and expert specialist music curators like Paul Jones, Jamie Cullum, Mark Radcliffe, Bob Harris and Trevor Nelson.

In fact, I consider my role with the help of our experienced radio producers as that of “curating the curators” and continuing to add the best new music from across the board to the broad range and mix that only Radio 2 plays day in and day out.

Every year it’s my privilege to curate which showcases this range. Last year we featured superstars Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart, but also included folk from Kate Rusby and new soul from Shaun Escoffery. In 2014 I persuaded Jeff Lynne to reform the much loved ELO, but we also showcased new country by Kacey Musgraves and folk by Bellowhead. All these artists were also uniquely featured in live tracks broadcast throughout the day on Radio 2 as well as in the station’s new release playlist. This year’s line-up will be just as diverse and as usual, feature a mix of legendary acts and the superstars of tomorrow. Standby for the line-up announcement soon...

And as well as this, April sees the return of the . Now in their 17th year, the awards will see the folk music world gather at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate the thriving UK folk music scene. There will be live performances from British singer-songwriter and multi-award-winning Joan Armatrading, Mercury Award-nominated Sam Lee, and acclaimed Northumbrian folk act The Unthanks. Other acts on the line-up will be announced at a later date.

Radio 2 is committed to providing listeners with a wide range of popular music forms, challenging audiences to experience the unfamiliar. If you are heading to the Country to Country Festival have a great time, if not please enjoy our pop up Radio 2 Country service or loads of other great popular music genres throughout the day on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2. 

Jeff Smith is Head of Music, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 6 Music 

We encouraged the nation's teachers and librarians to get involved by signing up to judge the first round – we simply could not run this competition without their support; attracted expert assistance (from the likes of The National Literacy Trust; The Scottish Book Trust and The Reading Agency) to manage the intermediate adjudication stage; and then engaged the biggest children's authors working today to act as our final judging panel. We called on celebrities who would excite the children, their parents and the wider Radio 2 audience to come and read the winning stories at the final.

Chris was across every detail. It was important that what we developed ultimately reflected (and eventually transcended) anything he had originally envisaged that evening when he dreamt the whole competition up.

Our friends at Blue Peter advised us that if they received 25,000 entries to a competition then they knew they had a hit. Well, the first year of 500 Words saw 30,000 children enter. This number swelled to 74,000 in year two; 92,000 in year three; 118,000 in year four and 120,421 in 2015.

Our judging panel has subtly altered throughout the course of the competition, and we are proud to count the likes of David Walliams, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Anthony Horowitz and Lauren Child amongst our alumni. This year's returning panel of Charlie Higson, Malorie Blackman, Frank Cottrell Boyce and Francesca Simon are joined - in a very special turn of events for 2016 - by new judge HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.

We were hugely honoured when The Duchess helped us launch last year's 500 WORDS with Chris Evans at a primary school and even more thrilled when she offered to host the 2015 final at St James' Palace and hold a reception for the children and their parents afterwards.

HRH and her team could not have been more helpful and supportive last year - even when we brought with us two live acts (The Vamps and Will Young), a full strength gospel choir, a host of superstar readers including the likes of Sir Kenneth Branagh, Charles Dance and Jeremy Irons, fifty excitable children and their parents, a full production team and OB crew…and our ringleader in chief Mr Chris Evans himself!

Anyway, not unduly put off and keen to continue her interest with 500 Words for 2016, as mentioned, the Duchess has agreed - for the first time ever - to act as judge in a competition. And in another Royal first, thanks to a fantastic idea from AP Vicki Perrin - HRH has agreed to appear in animated form for our launch film.

Also new for 2016, we are holding this year's final at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on Bankside in London, which not only ties in with the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's celebration of Shakespeare, but means that we can offer every single child who enters the competition the chance to be at the event on Friday 27th May - as they will all be entered into a random ticket ballot to win a seat alongside a parent/guardian.

And coming to Radio 2 next month is 500 Words: The (Short) Story So Far – presented by Sheila Hancock which tells the story of the first five years of 500 Words (Thursday 18th Feb at 10pm).

So the stage is set. Chris Evans has announced 500 Words 2016 is now open for business. We have judges aching to read your tales, and actors limbering up ready to bring your words to life. The children of the UK are poised over their keyboards scratching their heads, desperately searching for that moment of inspiration. Which all begs the question...What story will your son/daughter/niece/nephew/neighbour write?

Helen Thomas is Editor, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 and Radio 2 Digital 

• more about Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2's 500 Words short story writing competition on the Radio 2 website.
• about the 500 Words Final 2014 in a blog post written by blog editor Jon Jacob
• about the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's journalism learning project Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ School Report

This August marks 50 years since Elvis Presley and the young pretenders of pop the Beatles met, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 is marking the anniversary with , including documentaries, special features, music and a new drama, When Elvis Met the Beatles. Here scriptwriter Jeff Young talks about the new play.

I grew up with the Beatles, heard every song on its first day of release, saved up my pocket money to buythe records, went to the cinema to see the films, collected the bubble gum cards. The first time the Beatles were on TV my granddad said, "Those lads are from Liverpool and they’re going to be very famous."

I spent my childhood living in Beatle Land until it got to the point where enough was enough. I stopped listening to the Beatles – that is, I stopped listening to them by choice, because in Liverpool you can’t get away from John, Paul, George and Ringo. Having listened to their music from the very beginning - almost as if that’s just what you did in Liverpool in the 60’s – I lost interest in the Beatles in the late 60’s when I was old enough to go to record shops by myself and spend my pocket money on Tamla Motown 45’s. I’d discovered something for myself and, for me the Beatles music had lost its spark. 

I was over- saturated in Beatles music and over familiarity had tarnished the myth and made their music stale. I went from being a fan to switching the radio off whenever one of their songs came on. I wanted the electrifying Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations; this music was so much more exhilarating than ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Let it Be’.

When I was asked to work on the Beatles meet Elvis project at first I didn’t get it. I knew a little about the meeting but it didn’t strike me as an event with much dramatic content. But as I began researching the story the strangeness of the meeting and the psychological dimensions made it more and more attractive. Elvis was ingesting a frightening cocktail of prescription drugs and seeing visions of angels. About this time he saw Joseph Stalin’s face in the sky and was relieved when Stalin’s face turned into God’s. John Lennon was already disillusioned with Beatle Mania and cynical about the circus they were trapped in. They were holed up in Zsa Zsa Gabor’s mansion, hiding from screaming fans that loved them so much they wanted to rip them to pieces. Brian Epstein was a troubled man, drinking heavily, living a secret life as a gay man and wounded by Lennon’s cruelty. Colonel Tom Parker was a vulgar philistine with a background in carnival sideshows. John and George particularly were experimenting with drugs. All of this and more, set against a backdrop of corrupt American politics and the disastrous war in Vietnam made for a strange and compelling narrative.

The programme that emerged from all of this is a kind of fake documentary. To write it I first went back to the Beatles records and tried to remember what they meant to me when I was young and the songs were first released. I watched the Beatles films again and got their voices into my head; it was important to write in their voices, get the banter right and I found the best way to do this was to act out the lines, speaking in a Lennon or Ringo voice, trying to get the wise cracking tone. Footage of their American tour, of screaming girls and press conferences gave me an insight into the experience they were having. News footage, hysteria, surging crowds…and in the middle of it four lads from Liverpool and their urbane chaperone Brian, the centre of the whirlwind. We listened to archive radio broadcasts and drew on their sense of urgency and excitement – and I watched too many Elvis films, but even they were useful because they gave me a sense of how far apart the Beatles and Elvis were culturally, stylistically and in terms of general cool. By immersing myself in these various materials I could get as close as possible to the voice of the Beatles and the tone of their American experience. The drama is as much about atmosphere as action or emotion.

The Beatles were so young; they were bewildered and overwhelmed by their rapid rise to fame. They were more than just a pop group – they were a phenomenon and neither they nor Epstein quite knew how that had happened.

We wanted to create a sense of this bewilderment and strangeness and we wanted to create a sense of fear and boredom and also wide eyed exploration of this strange new world. These were kids with the eyes of the world upon them and – the boyfriends of those screaming girls - some very angry young men taking pot shots at the aeroplane the Beatles flew to gigs in. The actors in the piece rose to this with enthusiasm. Between takes they messed around and bantered – The Beatles we see in the films are playing versions of themselves, with all their mad cap surrealism and Goons inspired humour – and we hopefully managed to get a sense of this laddishness, this ‘fabness’ across. The way the Beatles coped with the madness was to enter into the madness. Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers were as influential on the Beatles as Elvis Presley. You get a sense of this in the drama – one minute the lads are playing cowboys and Indians, the next minute Lennon is doing his best Doctor Strangelove impression, the next they’re strapping on guitars and howling like Hound Dogs.

The drama is then a hybrid of fly on the wall documentary and a biopic in sound. We eavesdrop on private conversations held behind closed doors; we squeeze into the limousine with the Beatles and get a sense of what they might have been feeling as they drove through Beverley Hills on their way to meet the King. Some of this is documented and actually happened; some of it is invented. We will never really know what Brian and the Colonel talked about in private but we can piece together some possibilities from news reports and biographies. Rather than narration we have Brian recording his thoughts on a reel to reel tape machine. These are the ‘Lost Tapes’. I tried to imagine what Brian might have confided to a tape recorder, late at night, lonely, slightly inebriated, bewildered, wounded. For me Brian emerges as the hero of this story. I came to have enormous respect for him and I hope at least a sense of this remarkable, complex man comes across in the play.

Elvis Presley’s life was an American Tragedy and the seeds of it are sown here, in this meeting between the King and the pretenders to the throne. Two years later Brian Epstein would be dead and in a few years time the Beatles dream would be over.

In writing this piece I went back to those old Beatles records and I became a Beatles fan, all over again.

Jeff Young is a playwright and author of When Elvis met the Beatles.

• will be on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 on Monday 31 August at 7pm.

Fancy yourself as the next Rhod Gilbert, Josie Long, Peter Kay or Russell Howard? Well it's time to stand up and be counted, as the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio New Comedy Award 2015 has been launched. 

The winner be awarded a £1,000 prize and development support from the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Comedy department; with advice, guidance and the chance to appear in slots across the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ.

All you need to do to be in with a chance is send in a 5-7 minute comedy routine via the  before the deadline of Thursday 9 July 2015.

The 80 best entries will be selected for eight regional heats in August and September, in Edinburgh, Bath, London and Birmingham.  Listeners will have the chance to hear these heats each night on Radio 4 Extra. Clips of the winning heats will also be played on Steve Wright’s show on Radio 2 each Friday in the build-up to the live final which is on Radio 2 in November.

• Read last year's winner, Lee Ridley's blog

In the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Trust's recent service review of Radio 2, the station's 130 hours of documentary output was listened to by 825,000 people each week in 2013-14. The consultation found that listeners regarded the stations documentaries as "informative, interesting and entertaining." In this post, producer Steve Levine throws light on how the station's latest documentary came about Boy George and Culture Club came to life.

The 80s was a very exciting time for me, and for music. We were the first post-Beatles generation and as teenagers we grew up on great glam pop, Philly and Motown soul and the Jamaican reggae music of the 70s. This shaped our love and musical taste and inspired many 80s artists and music producers that changed the way records were made.

As a record producer I have worked with a wide variety of artists, from Culture Club to Honeyz and the Beach Boys. My career began in July 1975 working as a tape op for CBS studios. With disco on the way out and new wave music surfacing, I cut my teeth on demos for The Clash, The Jags and The Vibrators, whilst moving up the ranks to engineer.

Working at CBS I met a number of American producers including Bruce Johnson, then a successful songwriter and freelance record producer, now of Beach Boy fame. It was Bruce who encouraged me to become a record producer. The producers who really influenced me during that time are Phil Spector, Joe Meek, Sir George Martin and Thom Bell, to name a few.

Music and technology changed so much in the 80s and many of these recordings have such a time stamp on them of that era. That’s why I think so many of these productions are still being used in movie soundtracks today; they have an instant 80s vibe as soon as you hear them. Synthesised sound and design really took over and as digital recording became affordable, the next generation of artistes were able to start producing early hip hop and sampling based dance music that’s still with us today.

I met George Alan O’Dowd, or Boy George as he’s more widely known, in 1982 when we did our first session for the demos. We’ve always had a really great working relationship and have some very fond memories. As with all the Culture Club guys, as we’ve got older we have grown closer. George today is even more focused a studio musician then he was back then and his recent DJ work has given him terrific insight into what makes a great record.

Thirty years on from the worldwide, award winning success of Culture Club and the release of their albums ‘Kissing to be Clever’, ‘Colour by Numbers’ and ‘Waking up with the House on Fire’, we felt that the time was right to document the colourful life of lead singer, Boy George.

My company, which I run with broadcaster Richard Allinson, has created several documentaries for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 and 6 Music, including the series ‘The Record Producers’. So we had the means and connections to put the documentary together and Radio 2’s reputation for celebrating the music of the 80s gave the programme a home.

Radio 2, and in particular Sara Cox’s Sound of the 80s, celebrates the music of the 80’s in a way that really does pay homage without making it naff or cheesy, and some of the music really was quite cheesy. But with  a whole new generation can hear and appreciate George’s music as the great songwriter he always was, not just the superstar DJ many people know him to be today.

The programme includes some forgotten gems. I’ve recently moved my studio to a new, larger location and when packing up my studio equipment I found a box of cassettes and DAT tapes that I’d forgotten about. This was the perfect place to get these tracks out there. As a listener myself I always love to hear tracks or a performance that I've never heard before so I’m sure all you Boy George fans and Radio 2 listeners will enjoy them!

It’s great to hear today’s artistes and bands citing George as a major influence; both in their music and the way they focus on image and art design. Arcade Fire reference him as an influence and what’s interesting about them is that you wouldn’t necessarily say they were an 80s sounding band. As a producer I can hear lots of George’s vocal phrase and style in Sam Smith, although tonally they are different. Is Sam Smith this generation’s Boy George?

Steve Levine is a producer at Magnum Opus Broadcasting

• Listen to  on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 on Thursday 23 April, 10.00pm-11.00pm.

Four years ago, along with our producer - Hermeet Chadha - we formulated such a strategy in the form of an unprecedented new radio programme. "Nitin Sawhney Spins the Globe" is not a "world music" show. It's simply a show about music... for anyone interested in broadening their musical palette. I love that it's on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 in a prime time slot. I love that I get to play Paco de Lucia next to Radiohead. I love that it's been going for four series spread over four years. I love that we get to create unique bespoke collaborations for the show with everyone from Bassekou Koyate to Joss Stone. I love that it's simply about music. No categories, no boundaries. No prejudice. I want those who bemoan the “failures” of multiculturalism, or feel uncomfortable sitting next to those speaking foreign languages on public transport, to hear and enjoy this show. I want the former manager of that shop in Piccadilly Circus to listen to it so he hears, finally, that music is a universal language.

Music is too pure for prejudice. "Nitin Sawhney Spins the Globe" isn't about "world music". It's about music. Pure and simple.

Nitin Sawhney is a presenter on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2.

• The last in the present series of 'Nitin Sawhney Spins the Globe' is broadcast on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2 on Monday 6 April at 10pm. You can listen to previous episodes in the 4th series .
• Find out more about Nitin Sawhney's work on the .