With the summer holidays drawing to a close, 4 Extra marks the putting away of bucket and spades and the re-emergence of pencil cases, sharpeners and the sound of the school bell – with a two week season of programmes that explore that near universal of experiences: school days.

Rooting around in the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s basement you find that school life has been a constant source of inspiration in the history of Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio. Back to School with 4 Extra features classic comedies like a 1955 episode of Hancock’s Half Hour – in which the ‘the lad himself’ - Tony Hancock – takes a turn as teacher in a school full of ‘juvenile delinquents’. The episode - The Blackboard Jungle (starring Hancock, Kenneth Williams and Sid James) - was writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson’s take on the controversial American movie of the same name that year. It was a pressure cooker story of inter-racial school life that featured the then incendiary song ‘Rock around the Clock’, and a breakout performance by the young Sidney Poitier. Nearly 30 years later, in 1984, award winning Caribbean-British writer Caryl Phillips penned his first radio play, The Wasted Years, exploring the pressures of identity faced by Solly, the 16 year old son of Caribbean immigrants, as he prepares to leave school for an uncertain future. Tony Armatrading stars as Solly, alongside Carmen Monroe and Rudolph Walker (EastEnders).

Alongside a five part adaption of RF Delderfield's classic school drama set between the two world wars, To Serve Them All My Days, we have BAFTA winning Sarah Lancashire returning to 1930s Yorkshire as headmistress Sarah Burton, in a radio version of Winifred Holtby’s (1898-1935) most famous novel South Riding. Published posthumously in 1936, it's a rich and memorable evocation of the characters of Yorkshire's South Riding, their lives, loves and sorrow and a fitting summation of Holtby’s life as noted feminist, pacifist, journalist and writer.

In much more boisterous mood, Helen Mirren, Joanna Lumley and Lisa Dillon star in three classic ‘jolly hockey-sticks’ tales, from writers Angela Brazil and Enid Blyton, Good Show Clarissa. While from 1957, John Gielgud stars in The Browning Version, striking a reflective mood in his first performance in a play by Terrence Rattigan. Playing a schoolmaster, it’s a story of personal betrayal, education and regret.

Beyond fictional school walls we get to explore the real school reports of Dame Edna Everage, Wendy Cope, Alan Coren, Terence Stamp, Stephen Fry and Kenneth Williams, as Robert Booth asks what they would have done differently in school in the series Could Do Better. Celebrated Crime writer Val McDermid reveals her passion for South Shields novelist, Elinor Brent-Dye’s boarding school novels in The Chalet School. Though often overlooked today, these novels inspired her to go to university and eventually to become a writer herself.

Always with the ability to surprise, the Â鶹ԼÅÄ radio archive often gives us the chance to open up an audio time capsule….in this case from a bygone age of education: “One day last autumn [1947] a Â鶹ԼÅÄ van arrived at the tiny village school of Bolventor, in the middle of Bodmin Moor….engineers proceeded to hang up microphones in front of the various desks and out in the porch….the microphones and cables were left until the children had become accustomed to their presence and took no notice of them….” So explained the Radio Times in 1948, introducing an experimental programme decades before the vagaries of ‘reality TV’. The School on the Moor is a remarkable audio document: presented by the headmaster himself, this small school and former pupils magically tell their own story in 1947.

And, not heard since 1962, a truly disturbing school drama - from a Â鶹ԼÅÄ master of radio drama writing and production, Giles Cooper – admits us to a classroom where a new teacher has the distinct impression that his class has had something to do with the unfortunate demise of his predecessor in: Unman, Wittering and Zigo.

As we all know, school holidays are but a short lived dream….unlike the famous rock song….schools are never out forever…..

Programmes featured include
 (Sat 26 Aug, 4.00pm–5.20pm) 

 (Sun 27 Aug, 10.15 – 11.00am)
(Sun 27 Aug, 4.00pm–5.00pm)
(Sun 27 Aug, 8.00pm – 8.30pm)
 (Sun 27 Aug, 8.30pm – 10.00pm)

 (Mon 28 Aug – Wed 30 Aug, 2.45pm -3.00pm)
 (Mon 28 Aug – Fri 1 Sep, 11.15am–12.00pm)

 (Mon 28 Aug – Fri 1 Sep, 2.15pm -2.30pm)
 (Mon 28 Aug – Fri 1 Sep, 2.30pm -2.45pm)

 (Tue 29 Aug, 7.00am -7.30am) 
(Wed 30 Aug, 6.30pm – 7.00pm)
Comedy Club: The Museum of Everything  (Thu 31 Aug, 10.30pm– 11.00pm)

The Chalet School  (Fri 1 Sep, 13.30am – 2.00pm)

Hancock’s Half Hour – The Blackboard Jungle - (Sat 2 Sep, 12.00am-12.30am)

The Burkiss Way (Sat 2 Sep, 12.30am-1.00pm)

Could Do Better  (Mon 4 Sep, 2.15pm – 2.30pm)

South Riding 6-10/15 (Mon 4 Sep – Fri 8 Sep, 2.30am – 2.45am)

Amanda Root stars as young Fanny Price in (from 12 July). Austen’s unlikely heroine is plucked from her impoverished family and brought up by wealthy relatives, but the hopes of this poor relation are soon dashed. Yet as she grows up, Fanny proves to be an indispensable member of the household. This three-part 1987 dramatisation co-stars Michael Williams and Robert Glenister as Fanny’s cousins with Hannah Gordon as Jane Austen.

(from 17 July) is Austen's tale about two sisters who learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they’re to find happiness in a society where money governs love.

Forced to leave their beloved family home, after the death of their father, Elinor and Marianne aim to make a new life at Barton Cottage. While Marianne unexpectedly meets the dashing Willoughby who sweeps her off her feet, Elinor has a surprise visit from Edward. But with neither fortune nor connections, the prospect of marrying the men they love appears remote. This 2-part 2013 dramatisation stars Amanda Hale as Elinor and Olivia Hallinan as Marianne.

Ever wondered what your favourite literary characters would do if they were around today? In (from 17 July) City boy James takes inspiration from his girlfriend's beloved Austen in plotting how to win her back. He’s determined to grab her attention with an offer he hopes she can't refuse. Charlotte Jones' 5-part modern take on Austen's classic love story stars Kobna Holdbrook Smith as a modern day Mr Darcy.

In (18 July) David Owen Norris offers a rare insight into the family life of Jane Austen through her favourite songs. With singer, Gwyneth Herbert.

Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4 Extra showcases the enduring fascination of islands. In a two-week season we're roaming the globe, crossing centuries and investigating the real and the invented as we consider the special place of islands in our imaginations.

From idyll to prison, birthplace to workplace, refuge to colony, through corncrakes, campsites, witchcraft and ukuleles, Radio 4 Extra presents the mystery and magic of the island.

Drama highlights include RL Stevenson’s classic adventure (Sat, July 1st), starring Peter Jeffrey and Hugh Paddick, while Michael Denison and Moira Lister star in Noel Coward’s witty satire (Sat, June 24th).

In (Thur, June 29th), Anton Lesser encounters sorcery on a magic island in Brazil. Troubled lovers gaze from the Pembrokeshire coast to (Wed, June 28th), while identical twins on a remote Scottish island confront a secret in (Fri, July 7th).

Adjoa Andoh reads Jean Rhys’s award-winning novel (starts Mon, July 3rd), inspired by Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. We move from Jamaica to Orkney for a selection of (starts Mon, June 26th).

Among our feature highlights, Gwyneth Lewis looks at the idea of the island in (Sat, June 24th) and later takes (starts Mon, July 3rd).

Other documentaries travel from (Mon, June 26th) to (Fri, June 30th).

Kenneth Steven presents (Thur, July 6th), we visit Sheppey in (Wed, June 28th) and investigate the threat to the Carteret Islands in (Tues, July 4th). Our second Archive On 4 documentary, (Sat, July 1st), hears the testimony of immigrants at Ellis Island, New York.

A Desert Island Discs mini-season celebrates writers and performers born on islands around Great Britain, with guests (Sun, June 25th), (Sun, July 2nd), (Sun, July 9th) and Roy Dotrice (Sun, July 16th). And there’s a comic slant on the desert island in dramas (Wed, July 5th) and (Tues, June 27th).

Poetry Extra ranges from volcanic Iceland ( – Sun, July 2nd) to the Hebrides ( - Sun, July 9th) and war-torn Sri Lanka ( – Sun, June 25th).

Kerry Shale reads (starts Mon, June 26th) and comedies take us from the Northumberland coast ( – starts Mon, July 3rd) to the Isles of Scilly ( - starts Mon, June 26th) and the sub-Antarctic ( – starts Tues, June 26th), while Tina C undertakes her (starts Tues, June 26th).

Family… Whether you have heaps of squealing children, an arms-length relationship with an ex-partner, siblings, step-parents, grandparents or a huge tabby cat; families come in all shapes and sizes.

Radio 4 Extra invites you to celebrate the ‘Family’ in all its different guises showcasing famous radio comedy and iconic drama from the Â鶹ԼÅÄ archives including including TS Eliot’s drama Family Reunion not broadcast since original TX in 1965.

Here’s the family related delights that Radio 4 Extra has lined up for you:

Noel Coward’s inter-war play starring John Moffatt. The story of the working class Gibbons family coping with life between the wars and stars Rosemary Leach. This Happy Breed was also produced as a highly successful film in 1944 by David Lean. 

A family drama cataloguing the lives and loves across three generations in the . Elizabeth Jane Howard’s family saga brought her success in her 70s. She was a writer who transferred and recycled the mistakes in her own family life into brilliant novels.

Comedian Shappi Khorsandi presents to talk about the influence of her family and introduce a selection of family comedy. 

Jeremy Hardy faces up to fatherhood and gives tips on .

Shappi sees the funny side of being divorced and a single mother and discusses this with Jerry Hall in .

Dominic Holland discusses the journey of life and points out the pitfalls of growing up, becoming an adult and having children in .

Mark Steel proposes a radical idea to improve our lives in : No One Should Live in the Same Family for More than One Year…

Stephen K Amos shares his teenage years in 1980s South London in Jonathan Harvey’s comedy,

In , Isy returns to Derbyshire the home of her teenage years as she ambles through the archives to celebrate family life in a three hour showcase.

We hear from the classic comedy families across the decades starting with 50s & 60s families in  and . The latter features the real American Lyon family in 60s London, starring Bebe Daniels and her husband Ben Lyon. For the first time since its original transmission, the silent film actress chooses her castaway choices in . Bebe visited Britain for 3 weeks with her family in 1936. They loved it so much she was still here 20 years later.

From the 1960s, we bring you , the family sitcom adapted from television with Wendy Craig and Frances Matthews. Jennifer nags stubborn Henry due in court over a treehouse. 

From the 1970s comes the iconic comedy adapted from television with Wilfred Brambell and Harry H Corbett. Harold falls for his drama society’s leading lady. 

Simon Brett’s is a comedy drama from the 1980s featuring a widow, her mother and daughter, starring Prunella Scales and Joan Sanderson. 

From the 1990s, the Conroy family are braced for school reports – and a loan in Stockport: . Starring Dominic Monaghan (The Lord of the Rings) and Beverley Callard (Coronation Street). 

And from the 2010s, Simon Greenall and Kay Stonham star in Robin and Wendy’s . Away from their model village, the duo tackle a civil war recreation.

There are elements of family tragedy that we all recognise in Anne Tyler’s , a portrait of a fractured Baltimore family, with details that ring sharply true and characters that are both truthful and entertaining. Starring Barbara Barnes as Pearl and Nathan Osgood as Beck. The narrator is Lorelei King.

After 20 years away from poetry, during which he co-wrote The Royle Family and produced Gavin & Stacey, amongst others, Henry Normal returned to Radio 4 in 2016 for a comic and poetic look at his family life. Recorded in front of an audience in Brighton, is centred around Henry’s son, Johnny, who was diagnosed with “mildly severe” autism. Through stand-up and poetry, Henry explores what this means for Johnny, for himself, and for his wife, Angela. 

And finally, TS Eliot’s drama echoes Eliot’s own first failed marriage and looks at the family dynamics at a birthday gathering - always an opportunity for high tension. 

Whilst in the beginning radio gathered the family together, whatever your family make-up today, radio can also be enjoyed in perfect solitude.

Radio 4 Extra joins in the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s Gay Britannia season marking the 50th anniversary of The Sexual Offences Act 1967 – which partially decriminalised homosexual acts in private between two men over 21 in England and Wales. Join Â鶹ԼÅÄ journalist Ben Hunte as he curates our season and interviews some of his LGBT heroes... 

Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 2’s Paul O’Grady talks the secret gay slang of Polari ahead of (29 July) plus that bold edition of featuring Bona Law (30 July).

(29 July) discussing the Â鶹ԼÅÄ broadcaster’s gender reassignment – and talks to lesbian publisher, Linda Riley – ahead of the first of two episodes of EM Forster’s tale of early 20th-century gay love,  (30 July).

HIV activist Greg Owen chats to Ben – ahead of Andy Kirby’s two-part 1980s drama about a hospital’s first ever AIDS patient, starring Michael Cashman:  (31 July).

Inspirational gay journalist Dean Eastmond tells Ben about his brave battle with cancer – ahead of Armistead Maupin’s acclaimed tale of the denizens of the mythic apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane, San Francisco – set in the free and easy era of 1976:  (31 July).

The Comedy Club welcomes Stephen K Amos telling Ben about the perils of coming out – ahead of the edition of   where he tries to tell his family... (2 Aug) plus more chat with (3 Aug).

Get the confetti ready – as Ben meets Â鶹ԼÅÄ Three’s “Queer Britain” host Riyadh Khalaf – ahead of Ian and Adam’s 2006 Ambridge civil partnership in  (4 Aug).

Week 2 of Gay Britannia kicks off with Ben’s chat with Stonewall’s CEO, Ruth Hunt – ahead of Patrice Chaplin’s Edwardian drama charting Meriel’s growing obsession with a local girl – chosen by a 4 Extra listener and starring Deborah Makepeace: (5 Aug).

Ben talks to Paul O’Grady about the impact of his alter ego (5 Aug) – and later PinkNews chief, Benjamin Cohen – ahead of the comedy featuring the only gay in the village:  (5 Aug) starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams.

Ben meets LGBT YouTuber, Calum McSwiggan – ahead of Nicholas McInerny's autobiographical tale of a husband coming out as gay after 19 years. Julia Ford and Greg Wise star in (7 Aug).

Peter Tatchell chats to Ben about his role in gay activism – ahead of Phil Willmot’s drama about a 17-year-old and the lead-up to the 1994 age of consent protest by gay action group, Outrage, starring David Curtiz,  (9 Aug).

And don’t miss the Comedy Club when Gina Yashere tells Ben about life as a lesbian comic – ahead of our special compilation of the best out and proud Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio comedy from the past five years, (10 Aug).

You can find features and details of all the Gay Britannia programmes across Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio networks, with links to TV programmes, .  

Over three weeks, we’ll be celebrating a selection of these performers with a variety of programmes (many of them new to our network) including drama, documentary, interview and talk.

Our glittering cast list ranges from the first actor to be knighted (Henry Irving, played by Daniel Massey in - Apr 12th, 11.15am) to the two stars acknowledged in the most recent Honours list: Patricia Routledge ( - Apr 13th, 11.15am) and Mark Rylance ( – Apr 27th, 6.30am).

Our season begins in the weekend of the annual Olivier Awards and we’ll be marking the work of the first knighted actor to be ennobled: Lord Olivier is remembered in (with Sir Michael Gambon, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Joan Plowright - Apr 8th, 8am) and Philip Ziegler’s biography (read by Toby Jones - Apr 10th, 2.45pm). You’ll be able to hear the great actor himself in (Apr 9th, 4.20pm).

Other highlights in the first week include (Apr 8th, 6am) starring Dame Judi Dench and Sir Michael Hordern and (Apr 9th, 4pm) with Sir Ian McKellen.

Beginning the same week, Sir John Gielgud shares an extraordinary range of reminiscence about his life in the theatre in (starts Apr 10th, 6.30am).

appears on Desert Island Discs(Apr 9th, 10.15am) and subsequent castaways include (Apr 16th, 10.15am), (Apr 23rd, 10.15am), (Apr 30th, 10.15am) and Dame Penelope Wilton (May 7th, 10.15am).

In our second week, Sir Anthony Hopkins stars in Howard Brenton and David Hare’s (Apr 16th, 8pm) and Dame Kristin Scott Thomas takes the lead role in Sophocles’ (Apr 15th, 6am).

Sir Alec Guinness reads Lewis Carroll’s (Apr 15th, 12pm) and is featured in the Archive On 4 documentary (Apr 15th, 8am), while legendary actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit reads a selection from Jonathan Swift’s (Apr 16th, 7.15am).

Sir Michael Gambon stars in (Apr 21st, 10am). Dames Peggy Ashcroft and Judi Dench read the paired monologues (Apr 19th, 10am) and two knights combine as Nigel Hawthorne reads (Apr 17th, 2.45pm).

In our last week, we delve deep into the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Service archive for two 1940s pieces featuring Dame Edith Evans: (Apr 25th, 6.30am) and (Apr 25th, 6.50am), an extract from As You Like It, co-starring Sir Michael Redgrave.

We’ve rummaged in the World Service archive as well, bringing you (Apr 27th 10am) in which Dame Dorothy Tutin’s co-star is Stanley Baxter, playing the real-life role of Sir Noel Coward.

Sir Robert Stephens stars in (Apr 22nd, 6am) and Sir Daniel Day-Lewis appears in (Apr 24th, 11.15). (Apr 26th, 11.15) features Sir Antony Sher, Sir Ben Kingsley heads the cast in (Apr 28th, 10am) and Dame Flora Robson is (Apr 22nd, 2.15pm).

You might even find yourself recognising some potential dames and knights among our casts – Frances Barber? Simon Russell Beale? Miriam Margolyes? Michael Sheen?

Settle back as the lights dim and the curtain rises on our season of honoured – and marvellous – actors.

The neoclassical Church of at the corner of Trafalgar Square has a long history as a place of refuge. During the First World War the charismatic and maverick vicar, , threw open the doors to soldiers departing for the front from Charing Cross Station nearby.  

"He created the tradition of the church of the ever-open door" says the , the current vicar of St Martin’s "and from that time forward people have come to St Martin’s with the expectation that even if they are desperate and destitute there’s a place here for them."

After the war Dick Sheppard’s appeals from the pulpit to his congregation to donate to those less fortunate became formalised  and appeared in the .

So this year marks the 90th .

The money raised by donations to the appeal is shared between , the night shelter and day centre next to the church in Trafalgar Square, and the which gives crisis grants to applicants around the country who are homeless or who are in danger of losing their homes.

Tony is a painter and decorator from Wrexham who now has somewhere safe to live for the first time in 5 years, thanks to a grant for £340 from the which paid for a month’s rent in advance to secure his tenancy. Even though he thinks he could do a better job on the decoration, he is very relieved to have found a home:

"I couldn’t believe it. I was in a dream. I had to keep pinching myself! To be back in a house, not have the elements on you, to actually be able to sit down and have a cup of tea, it was just brilliant."

Government figures show that .

Of the continuing Sam Wells says "This year is the 90th year. That’s an incredible record of partnership. It’s a story of wisdom and experience and friendship over 90 years. There’s a sad part of that, because it suggests that unfortunately homelessness is a problem that’s not going to go away. What I’m celebrating after 90 years is a gathering together of people who – together - have had an amazing record of making a real difference."

The 90th Radio 4 Christmas Appeal with St Martin in-the-Fields starts on Sunday 4 December. For more information or to make a donation visit the .

•  to the Radio 4 Christmas Appeal

• To donate by phone call 0800 082 82 84

• Find out more about

• Find out more about the

Bollywood, India’s popular cinema industry, produces thousands of films that are enjoyed around the world. As the nights draw in and the mercury falls, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4 Extra presents a selection of Bollywood-themed features and dramas filled with warmth, light, music and song. The programmes are introduced by Bobby Friction, Bollywood aficionado and presenter of the eponymous weeknight music programme on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Asian Network.

Sanjeev Bhaskar delves into Bollywood’s early history with Lights, Camera, Akshun! (2013), exploring how three of the industry’s key players started out in London. Niranjan Pal wrote a West End play before co-directing The Light of Asia (1925) with Himanshu Rai, who went on to found the production company Bombay Talkies with actress Devika Rani. In Nightingales of India (2013), Yasmin Alibhai Brown looks back at the careers of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, the sisters who’ve sung the songs in thousands of Bollywood movies for the past 70 years.

Bollywood Jane (2008) is a drama series that shows how Bollywood crosses cultures. Jane, a teenager from a tough background, discovers Bollywood through her friend Dini. The films’ themes of hope and love sustain her as she makes the difficult adjustment to working life in a new city. And we have two detective dramas from 2007: Feluda - The Golden Fortress and Feluda - The Mystery of the Elephant God, written by renowned Bengali director Satyajit Ray, best known for his Apu film trilogy. The adaptor, Ray Grewal, has described the detective Feluda as a mixture of Sherlock Holmes, Tintin and Indiana Jones. Prominent Bollywood actors take the lead roles in this drama, including Rahul Bose as Feluda, and Anupam Kher as his friend Lalmohan Ganguly.

Written by Alison Frank

Programmes in the series