Radio Highlights

Introducing Asian Studies — The Vietnam War and International Relations in Eastern Asia — The Vietnam war dominated the region for two decades and the aftershocks are still being felt. Unlike Korea, China didn't commit troops but provided some material support to the Vietnamese. In the 1970s, China's relationship with Vietnam deteriorated as China re-established ties with the US and supported the Khmer Rouge. This program analyses the nature of the region's shifting relationships. ABC Radio National, Friday, July 22, 11.05am.

Sunday Afternoon — The Proms Centenary Collection — with Jim McLeod. Continuing the series of concerts drawn from the BBC's collection of recordings from the Proms, this month's highlights are from the 1950s. ABC Classic FM, Sunday, July 24, 1pm.

The Listening Room — Vanunu — A documentary opera for radio by David Nehrlich and Robert Iolini. In 1986 Mordechai Vanunu revealed to Britain's Sunday Times, corroborated with photographic evidence gathered while he was employed as a technician in Israel's Dimona nuclear plant, that, unknown to the rest of the world and its own population, Israel was engaged in the production of offensive nuclear weapons. Vanunu was kidnapped by Israel's secret service and returned to face trial. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison and is currently in his 8th year of solitary confinement. Vanunu, the radio opera, maps the fateful journey of its subject echoing the dualities and forks in the road of Vanunu's journey across physical and psychic terrains, from North Africa to Israel, through the Himalayas and South East Asia to Australia. ABC Classic FM, Monday, July 25, 9pm.

Soundstage — Talking Heads — Part two. In monologues Alan Bennett tells tales of "ordinary, uneventful, desperate" lives. Bed Among The Lentils, with Anna Massey as Susan, the vicar' wife, who, driven to desperation and over-indulgence in the communion wine, finds unexpected consolation in a brief affair. A Lady Of Letters, with Patricia Routledge as Miss Ruddock, a respectable, middle-class woman with a terrible weakness: she can't stop writing letters to all and sundry — her MP, her optician, the local undertakers, the Queen. But her public-spirited obsession gets her into serious trouble. ABC Classic FM, Tuesday, July 26, 8pm.

John Doyle — Pulls no punches and leaves no stone unturned in the search for truth, justice and the most effective way to work a clich‚. ABC 2BL-702, Mon-Fri, 2-4pm.

From GLW issue 151