Radio Week
The picks of the best of this week’s radio
ENTERTAINMENT Iggy Pop... Bill Nighy Sits in SUNDAY, 4�PM, BBC 6 MUSIC
★★★★★ Smooth-talking Bill gets New Year’s Eve off to a mellow start with music by David Bowie, Marvin Gaye, Sarah Jaffe plus Best Of My Love from The Emotions to get us ‘match-fit for tonight’. From 8pm, Stuart Maconie hosts a Northern Soul party, or you can welcome in 2024 with sassy Michelle Visage playing three hours of upbeat party anthems live from Los Angeles from 10pm on BBC Radio 2.
Slán le 2023
SUNDAY, 10PM, RNAG� ★★★★
Jó Ní Chéide and Séamus Ó Scanláin will help us see out 2023 and welcome 2024 tonight with chat, music and great company.
The Ultimate Madonna Song Vote
MONDAY, 2PM, BBC RADIO 2 ★★★★★ The top 40 Madonna hits, as chosen by listeners, are counted down by Scott Mills and mixed in with interview clips with the singer and celebrity fans. At 6pm, there are gems from the BBC archive, including an appearance when her breakthrough single Holiday had just entered the charts.
Screenshot
FRIDAY, 7.15PM, BBC RADIO 4� ★★★★ Less is definitely more when it comes to acting drunk. Film critics Mark Kermode and Ellen E. Jones look at how alcohol has been depicted on stage and screen.
Special guest Richard E. Grant explains his barnstorming performance as a consumer of ‘the finest wines available to humanity’ in Withnail And I. Even more remarkable is the fact that Grant is teetotal.
FACTUAL Great Lives
TUESDAY, 4�.30PM, BBC RADIO 4� ★★★★ Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales nominates Thomas Jefferson, the third US President, saying he’s fascinated by his ‘complicated’ life. An intellectual, he spoke out for ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ and against slavery, yet he was a slave owner and reportedly had a 14year-old slave as a mistress while he lived in France, where he also developed a passion for wine.
Open Country
THURSDAY, 3PM, BBC RADIO 4� ★★★★ Anneka Rice is infectiously enthusiastic as she shares her passion for the Isle of Wight, which she first visited as a small child. A painter herself who has been inspired by the island, Anneka meets fellow artists working there now as she sets out to uncover its enduring attraction for painters, photographers and writers including Tennyson, Dickens and Keats.
DRAMA
Bob Servant Says Cheerio WEDNESDAY, 11.30AM, BBC RADIO 4�
★★★★★
In his last hurrah in Neil Forsyth’s wonderful sitcom, the bragging, name-dropping Bob (Brian Cox) is preparing to embark on a torrid relationship with the singer Lulu ‘that will make Antony and Cleopatra look like The Muppets’. It’s 40 years since their eyes met, or so he claims, across a petrol station forecourt in Invergowrie. But will the Earth move now?
Leaba an Bháis SUNDAY, 9PM, RNAG�
★★★★
Award winning black comedy drama by Darach Mac Con Iomaire, about a family who is upset — and one of them is in danger of an unexpected death. This drama won an IMRO award and features many fine actors including Bríd Ní Neachtain, Colm Joe Mac Donncha, Sorcha Ní Chéide, Eoin Ó Dubhghaill, Fionnuala Gygax and Seán Bán Breathnach.