Guardian 7 July 1999

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Michael Butt has written an enticing piece of creative history for the Afternoon Play. Plum's War (2.15pm, Radio 4) turns on the wartime episode when PG Wodehouse, late in fleeing to Britain, was interned in France and persuaded by the Germans to broadcast various innocuous talks. George Orwell is the narrator who observes with growing distaste how the government stirs public opinion against Wodehouse. The incident turns Orwell's thoughts to the outlines of a new book, a neat conceit beautifully played by Benjamin Whitrow and Nicholas Farrell.

The British regulatory authorities may have ducked the issue for the moment but the artificial generation of human spare parts is still firmly on the medical agenda. In Frontiers (9.0pm, Radio 4) Peter Evans explains the current experimental work being done on embryonic stem cells. These are the basic units which can later be turned into skin, muscles, livers or other part of the human body that may need replacing.