Entertainment
100 ways to enjoy the lockdown
Archers addicts and classic Bond: ten unmissable RADIO shows
1. CRACKING CASTAWAYS, FROM HITCHCOCK TO BECKHAM
Over 2,000 Desert Island Disc shows are available online, featuring conversation and the musical choices of great names from sport, science, politics and show business. Take your pick from Alfred Hitchcock and Stephen Hawking to Mary Berry and David Beckham. Unlike the iPlayer for television, the BBC’s ‘sounds’ radio archive is available in Ireland. bbc.co.uk/sounds
2. JUST AN EVERYDAY STORY...
The Archers has been broadcasting uninterrupted since January 1951. The Ambridge villagers are currently dealing with the aftermath of a devastating explosion at the Grey Gables hotel but the show is always topical, so fans can expect a coronavirus storyline soon. Daily episodes and the Sunday omnibus are available for 30 days after broadcast. bbc.co.uk/sounds
3. NO SPORT? OH YES THERE IS
In the absence of any sports fixtures tune in to BBC Radio 5 Live Sport Specials. BBC Sounds has 686 of them available, ranging from an interview with the late Manchester United hero Harry Gregg, a Busby Babe who survived the Munich Air Disaster, to the current debate over the prospect of women drivers in Formula 1. bbc.co.uk/ sounds
4. HOW TO REBUILD A SHATTERED WORLD
Sian Williams’s fascinating radio documentary is about mental strength – where it comes from, why it matters and how it can be nurtured to survive personal trauma and rebuild a shattered world. The broadcaster made an academic study of it following her own experience of breast cancer. bbc.co.uk/sounds
5. TUNE IN TO SOME HOMEGROWN DRAMA
RTÉ maintains an archive of dramas it has broadcast. The most popular of these on the station’s site is Love is a Simple Thing by Veronica Coburn. It tells of three would-be couples searching for love – at home; on the net; even at the local salsa night - while an orchestra conveys all the highs and lows of romantic life. The drama is recorded with a live soundtrack by Elaine Agnew performed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. rte.ie/drama/radio/
6. AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARIES
While RTÉ’s The Nobody Zone is a hit with podcast audiences (see No. 27), RTÉ also maintains an archive of its award-winning Doc on One series. The programmes cover everything from the experience of Irish troops abroad (The Siege at Jadotville) to the Republic of Ireland soccer team’s 1982 tour of South America (Cigarettes and Samba). rte.ie/radio1/doconone/
7. TALK ON THE WILD SIDE
Try award-winning presenter and best-selling author James O’Brien’s one-on-one conversations with names such as Ricky Gervais, David Cameron, Prue Leith, Sharon Horgan, Tony Blair and Paloma Faith. More than 40 are available. globalplayer.com
8. DOUBLE-0 HEAVEN
The opening of the new Bond movie may be postponed but you can enjoy Toby Stephens as 007 battling it out with international assassin Scaramanga in a BBC Radio 4 production of The Man With The Golden Gun. John Standing is the voice of M, Janie Dee is Moneypenny and CubanAmerican star Guillermo Diaz is the baddie. bbc.co.uk/sounds until April 13.
9. AN AUDIBLE EDUCATION
Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time has been educating BBC Radio 4 listeners on history, philosophy, religion, culture and science since 1998. Subjects range from the Epic Of Gilgamesh to The Gin Craze to the athematical problem of P v NP, which, despite its complexity, made the top 10 in a listeners’ vote to mark Bragg’s 750th programme in 2017. bbc.co.uk/sounds
10. TUNE IN TO A LITERARY CLASSIC
The Mill On The Floss, George Eliot’s novel about miller’s daughter Maggie Tulliver and her brother Tom, encapsulates the themes of desire, betrayal and moral conflict. This 10-part series marks the 140th anniversary of the author’s death. Anna Maxwell Martin is the narrator. It starts on BBC Radio 4 on Monday, April 6 and will be available on BBC Sounds for five years after broadcast. bbc.co.uk
A John Legend gig from his home, plus more magic MUSIC 11. 2020’S FIRST GREAT ALBUM
If you’ve lost the habit of listening to entire albums, now is the time to recapture it. The first great album of 2020, released in January, was the danceable
Hotspot by the Pet Shop Boys. spotify.com, apple.com/ie/music
12. DON’T MISS THESE TWO RAVISHING, SOULFUL TREATS
In more recent weeks, Nathaniel Rateliff has returned, with the soulful album And It’s Still
Alright, and later this week [April 3] comes the ravishing Revel In
The Drama by Ren Harvieu. spotify.com, apple.com/ie/music
13. SOMETHING TO CALM THOSE TROUBLED WATERS
The best old-and-new album is the majestic Bridge Over Troubled
Water by Simon & Garfunkel, reissued for its 50th anniversary. spotify.com, apple.com/ie/music
14. THE BOSS IN HYDE PARK – FOR 3.5 HOURS!
For an entire evening’s entertainment, tuck in to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in Hyde Park, London, in 2009. I was there and it was immense. And, Springsteen being Springsteen, it lasted for threeand-a-half hours. spotify.com, deezer.com, amazon.co.uk, play. google.com, tidal.com, youtube. com
15. WHEN WONDER WOMAN REIMAGINED ‘IMAGINE’...
If there was a Grammy for the best musical performance of this crisis, it would surely go to the Italians singing on their balconies, putting music to its most vital use, connecting and consoling us. If there was a Grammy for the worst performance, it might go to Gal Gadot, aka Wonder Woman, on Instagram. She somehow persuaded her famous friends to make mincemeat of John Lennon’s Imagine. youtube.com, search for ‘Imagine Gal Gadot’
16. BONO’S NEW BALLAD
Bono attracts his share of scoffing, but he’s written a likeable new song about this weird new world.
Let Your Love Be Known is a Lennon-ish piano ballad, inspired by the singing Italians and uploaded to Instagram on St Patrick’s Day, ‘about an hour after it was written’. youtube.com, search for ‘Bono Let Your Love Be Known’
17. NEIL’S STILL A GEM AT 79
Why write a new song when you can tweak an old one? Neil Diamond, now 79, gave up performing in 2018, following a Parkinson’s diagnosis, but he’s back, sitting by the fire with his golden retriever to deliver a topical version of Sweet Caroline. All together now: ‘hands, washing hands...’ twitter. com/NeilDiamond
18. I CAN DO ANYTHING...
There are plenty of interesting covers to go round. Norah Jones turns Guns N’ Roses’ Patience into a rough-edged piano reverie, and it’s lovely (youtube. com, search for ‘Norah Jones Patience’). Marcus Mumford has a
crack at You’ll Never Walk Alone: like
Bono, he leans towards the Lennonish, which makes sense for a song that now belongs to Liverpool (youtube.com, search for ‘Mumford
Walk Alone’) Ben Gibbard from Death Cab For Cutie sings a Lennon tune – ‘not Imagine, because that song has suffered enough,’ but the piercingly relevant Isolation. nme. com, search for ‘Ben Gibbard Isolation’
19. LEGEND SINGS, HIS WIFE’S ON THE PIANO (LITERALLY!)
Working from home? If you’re a pop star, that means streaming a mini-gig from your sitting room. Brian Wilson has done one, and so has Coldplay’s Chris Martin, but the best I’ve seen is by John Legend, who opens with the great Stevie Wonder song Love’s In Need Of
Love Today. Legend’s wife, Chrissy Teigen, joins him on the piano – sitting on top of it, wearing a towel, as you do. On Legend’s Instagram, @ johnlegend
20. WE’LL MEET AGAIN – YOU DECIDE WHERE AND WHEN
Britain’s oldest pop star has just turned 103. For her birthday, Vera Lynn released a short new video of
We’ll Meet Again. She knows that better than anyone, having lived through the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19. youtube.com, search for ‘We’ll Meet Again 103’