Radio Week
The picks of the best of this week’s radio
ENTERTAINMENT Radio 2 In The Park
SUNDAY, 11AM, BBC RADIO 2 HHHH
Kylie Minogue is the big draw tonight. The Aussie pop princess is on at 8pm, and on stage before her are Simply Red who get the day going (at 12.30pm), then Sam Ryder, Lemar, Jessie Ware, Rick Astley, Shalamar and The Pretenders.
The Folk Show With Mark Radcliffe
WEDNESDAY, 9PM, BBC RADIO 2 HHHH Paul Simon, now in his 80s, talks about mortality, creativity and spirituality as he introduces his latest album Psalms which he calls ‘an argument I’m having with myself about belief, or not’. On a lighter note he also remembers his early experiences playing on the folk music circuit in the 1960s, and you can hear his first BBC radio session from way back in 1965.
FACTUAL
Great Lives
TUESDAY, 4.30PM, BBC RADIO 4 HHHH
‘Pigeonholes are only comfortable for pigeons,’ American soprano Jessye Norman once said. She lived by that maxim and sang what she wanted, be it opera roles, recitals, music by Duke Ellington or Amazing Grace at Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday gig at Wembley. Chi Chi Nwanoku, founder of the Chineke! Orchestra, salutes a fellow musician who overcame racial segregation and injustice
and who has done great work to provide free tuition for disadvantaged children.
Just One Thing
WEDNESDAY, 9.30AM, BBC RADIO 4 HHHH
A nice cup of tea is the good doctor Michael Mosley’s first prescription in his new series. He hears how a tasty brew can help reduce stress, help your heart stay healthy and perhaps even benefit your bones.
Bladhaire
THURSDAY, 3PM, RNAG
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Áine Ní Bhreisleáin and the Bladhaire crew kick off a new season of shows with a programme coming live from the
National Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska, Co. Laois.
Áine will be speaking with attendees and exhibitors, and there’ll be live music and lots of fun.
DRAMA
You Must Listen
WEDNESDAY, 2.15PM, BBC RADIO 4 HHHHH
Nigel Kneale was famous for his Quatermass sci-fi serials on TV in the 1950s. But before then he wrote this eerie 1952 radio drama. The original was lost, but it has been rerecorded with Toby Jones, Caroline Catz and Reece Shearsmith heading the cast. When a new phone line is installed in a refurbished office, staff keep hearing a mysterious woman talking on the phone non-stop to someone who never answers.
MUSIC
Radio 3 In Concert
FRIDAY, 7.30PM, BBC RADIO 3
HHHHH Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson set up the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra as a group of ‘musical refugees — people who had lost everything, fled Ukraine and were desperate to make music’. This emotional concert is at the start of their tour this summer.
RTE Lyric Live FRIDAY, 7PM, LYRIC FM
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In tonight’s Culture Night special, Paul Herriott chats to Irish jazz trombonist, composer and conductor Robert Valentine Lamb ahead of a performance of the world premiere of his Conversations For Trombone, Violin And Orchestra performed by Mia Cooper, violin and Michael Marshall, trombone.