Bleak Expectations, Radio 4, 11.30am

What is it with 2007 and Dickens? We have already had a cunning evocation of how Dickens the newshound might have dealt with some of the tabloid sensations of his time, now we have this six-part comedic romp by Mark Evans in which a top cast (Anthony Head, Celia Imrie, Richard Johnson et al) has the time of its life with a plot in which no Dickensian cliché is left unlovingly mocked. Why, even the names of the characters could have sprung from one of the master’s works – Mr Gently Benevolent (the villain, natch), the Hardthrasher family and, most beautiful of all, the hero’s tragic wife, Flora Dies-Early.

Afternoon Play, Radio 4, 2.15pm

Speaking of the giants of English comic literature, it is a pleasure to learn that Rumpole and the Reign of Terror, John Mortimer’s latest (2006) chronicle of the life and cases of the great rebel with many causes, Horace Rumpole, translates as well to radio as all the others have. Once again Timothy West ( above) is perfect as Rumpole, as before Prunella Scales is even better as “She Who Must Be Obeyed”. And as for the case, it couldn’t be more of-the-moment – a man is arrested on suspicion of terrorism, and Rumpole is the only person in Britain who can help him. But of course.

Heritage: The Archaeology of the Balkans, World Service, 9.06am, 12.06pm, 8.06pm, 12.06am

The Balkan wars of the 1990s were remarkable for their savagery and comprehensive in the damage caused – and the bloodletting is still not over. Here Malcolm Billings begins a four-part series about the tragedy in countries remarkably close at hand about which we continue to know very little.

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