Kidlit radio #25

The coming week’s bookish radio delights to listen out for include:


Sunday 22 July

09:00 – 10:00 and 16:30-17:30 Radio 4 Extra Roald Dahl – Matilda
1/2 The story of a pint-size genius with special powers – and she’s only five. Narrated by Lenny Henry, stars Nichola McAuliffe.

10:00 – 10:45 Radio 4 Extra Desert Island Discs Revisited: David Walliams
The castaway choices of the Little Britain star and children’s author, in conversation with Kirsty Young.

13:30 – 15:00 Radio 4 Extra RL Stevenson – Treasure Island
A treasure map leads young Jim Hawkins on a sea adventure with devious Long John Silver.

17:30 – 18:00 Radio 4 Extra Spike Milligan – I Like Spike: The Poems and Puckoon
1/2 Roy Hudd thrills an audience with ephemera from the mind of Chief Goon Milligan.

Monday 23 July

11:00 – 11:15 Radio 4 Extra Come Away, Come Away! The Beautiful Freedom Cage, by Julie Bertagna
To mark 150 years since author J M Barrie’s birth, three leading writers for young people contribute stories inspired by a chapter title from ‘Peter Pan’. The authors have been set the task of exploring the joys and the terrors of childhood without sentimentality, much as Barrie did in his original text.

Julie Bertagna writes for children and young adults and will shortly publish the final part of her acclaimed Savage Earth saga, ‘Aurora’. She has been shortlisted for the Whitbread Children’s Book award and the Blue Peter Book Awards.

16:00 Radio 4 With Great Pleasure – John Hegley
John Hegley exuberantly shares his most-loved poems and novels.

Friday 27 July

12:45 Radio 4 The New Elizabethans: Roald Dahl
James Naughtie profiles the storyteller who enchanted children with his grotesque tales.

All these radio programmes are available to listen to online worldwide, usually for one week after initial broadcast in the UK.