It’s all Chaplin at the moment. This evening, on BBC Radio 3, there is a 90-minute concert of music by Benedict Mason to accompany three Chaplin films: Easy Street, The Adventurer and The Immigrant. They are billed as ‘Chaplin Operas’, and the Radio 3 site describes the programme as featuring “three hyperactive scores written by Benedict Mason to accompany Chaplin films. Mason’s surreal brand of humour creates a post-modern commentary on Chaplin’s slapstick routines and bathos.” Hmm, we’ll see. The concert was originally given on 27 April at The Anvil, Basingstoke, and features Hilary Summers (mezzo), Omar Ebrahim (baritone) and the London Sinfonietta, with Franck Ollu, conductor. It’s broadcast at 20.30 this evening as part of the Hear and Now strand.

The programme will be available via the Listen Again service for a week after the broadcast.