Radio: Red Nose Day – Performance on 3 | Red Nose Day – The Verb | The Reunion – Comic Relief | Giving Science the XX Factor

This year's Red Nose Day, highlight of Comic Relief, makes a big noise on Radio 3 – quite literally, as PERFORMANCE ON 3 broadcasts live from London's Albert Hall, featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra, violinist Nicola Benedetti, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber and soprano Shuna Scott Sendall, plus an attempt to break the record for the world's largest kazoo ensemble.

Presented by Katie Derham, the concert threatens to considerably heighten Radio 3's mayhem quotient as the classical stars are joined by garrulous fox Basil Brush, comedians Tim Vine and Marcus Brigstocke and, not least, the Masters of the Kazooniverse, "the world's only marching kazoo orchestra". Expect quite a buzz.

Red Nose Day further manifests itself on the culture station as, under the genial chairmanship of poet-at-large Ian McMillan, the verb celebrates the witty muse, including Lake Wobegon author Garrison Keillor reading sonnets from his first collection of poetry.

The very origins of comic relief itself are revisited in the reunion, as Sue MacGregor gathers together the charity's founder members, including Richard Curtis, Lenny Henry, Helen Fielding, Griff Rhys Jones and Paddy Coulter. They recall how the concept was launched on Noel Edmonds' Late, Late Breakfast Show on Christmas Day 1985, with a live broadcast from a refugee camp in Sudan. That raised 1 million, followed up by Comic Relief's first live fundraising show at London's Shaftesbury theatre, with guests including Rowan Atkinson, Ronnie Corbett and Kate Bush.

Less of a joke, however, is the dearth of girls studying science and engineering subjects at school and in higher education. In giving science the xx factor, Professor Anne Glover, Chief Scientific Advisor for Scotland, examines what is being done today to encourage more girls to study science, and ponders whether there are still fundamental cultural barriers keeping women from successful science careers, and why medicine still attracts more female students than engineering.

Red Nose Day – Performance on 3

Friday, Radio 3, 7pm

Red Nose Day – The Verb

Friday, Radio 3, 9:15pm

The Reunion – Comic Relief

Tomorrow, Radio 4, 11:15am

Giving Science the XX Factor

Monday, Radio Scotland, 2pm

• This article was first published in The Scotsman on January 30, 2011