Afternoon on 3

Radio 3, 2pm

The 250th anniversary year of George Frederic Handel’s death is marked with a complete cycle of his 42 operas, to be broadcast on Thursday afternoons. The first is Almira, written under unusual circumstances — Handel was 19 at the time, and had recently taken over at the Hamburg Opera House after the previous director had absconded to avoid his creditors. And it was an immediate hit by the standards of the time, being performed 20 times before being replaced by Handel’s second opera, Nero. It’s performed by the early-instruments orchestra Fiori Musicali.

Inside City Hall

Radio 4, 8pm

In 2000 London got its first elected mayor, and the BBC’s Shaun Ley got a new job — political editor for London and, as he describes it, the possessor of a front-row seat for “the best show in town”. And that’s what comes over in this excellent documentary, a tale of how first Ken Livingstone and then Boris Johnson came to run a city of eight million people, largely without a template to work from.

Livingstone had had experience at the head of the GLC, of course, but for his part, Johnson describes himself as “just a journalist”. Livingstone dominates the programme, taking the opportunity to settle a few scores along the way, while Johnson largely plays a straight bat and, joy of joys, reminds us of “whiff-whaff”. Others help to pad out the narrative but Livingstone and Johnson are the stars, which is as it should be.

I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue

Radio 7, 12.30pm, 7.30pm

Here’s a little experiment — listen to this episode from 1983 and ask yourself whether any of the jokes are really all that different to the ones being told in the run-up to Humph’s sad demise 25 years later. And, while you’re considering that, be reminded of the genius of the equally dearly departed Willie Rushton.

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