This week’s best radio: David Essex and Adrian Mole

Two cult heroes of youth from decades past make a reappearance this week. Jim MacLaine was the hero of Ray Connolly’s 1973 movie That’ll Be the Day, about a young man turning his back on a university education at the turn of the 60s in order to try his hand in a rock’n’roll band. MacLaine is back in a new dramatisation (23 September, 2.30pm, Radio 4). Meanwhile, the original star of that film, David Essex, is the guest on Simon Mayo (27 September, 5pm, Radio 2) as he prepares to go on tour with Suzi Quatro, Hot Chocolate and the Osmonds. The Book at Bedtime is The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ (Weekdays until 6 October, 10.45pm, Radio 4) read by Harry McEntire. Here, it is still 1981 and Adrian vows to start the new year by putting his records back in their sleeves.

National Poetry Day is this Thursday. In The Essay (Weekdays, 10.45pm, Radio 3) Don Paterson reflects on five poems he wishes he’d written, beginning with Seamus Heaney at the beginning of the week and finishing with Robert Frost on Friday. That night, Ian McMillan presents The Verb (29 September, 10pm, Radio 3) live from Hull with a look at poetry inspired by the city. He talks to poet and editor Rachael Allen about the university’s famous librarian Philip Larkin. Earlier the same day, John Cooper Clarke guests on Radcliffe and Maconie (29 September, 1pm, 6 Music) to talk about Hull’s poetry festival Contains Strong Language, which began the day before.

Ken Bruce inaugurates the week of Radio 2’s 50th anniversary with a special Friday Night Is Music Night (29 September, 8pm, Radio 2) with the BBC Concert Orchestra from the Hackney Empire. This memory lane meanders past much-loved classics such as Open House, The News Huddlines and Sing Something Simple. The star turn is Albert Hammond, performing a selection of classic Radio 2 hits.

Constitutional is an unashamedly educational podcast from the Washington Post. Sub-titled “a podcast about the story of America” it’s presented by Lillian Cunningham who engages scholars to explain the fascinating story of how a nation is designed from scratch. If you wish to get closer to understanding such knotty issues as states’ rights and Jim Crow – issues that are as real and present as tomorrow’s headlines – this a good place to start.

Radio 3 shows such as Between the Ears also make the kind of podcasts that draw the most from your noise-cancelling headphones. The programme commissions ideas that make adventurous use of sound. With the right noise cancellation you can travel to the source of Yorkshire’s river Don to hear about the revived worship of its goddess Danu or hear a sound engineer remove the hiss and adjust the pitch of old wax cylinder recordings of Joseph Taylor, who first sang Brigg Fair for Percy Grainger in 1905. It’s a welcome corrective to the usual babble.