Arena Season 1, Episode 455

Arena: Radio Night: Introduction · BBC Four · Saturday, December 18

Your television and radio are cast as personalities (played by Peter Cook and Josie Lawrence) in this night of themed programmes showing how the two media have competed over the years, and which medium does what best. To make the most of the evening, as David Attenborough explains in his introduction, you need to have your radio and TV in the same room, so that they can "talk to" each other, although there are times (marked with a dagger) when you can choose between listening and viewing. There's nostalgia, science, drama and documentary. And linking it all, some lively sparring between the spirits of your radio and television, barely controlled by announcer Peter Donaldson.