Radio Week

The picks of the best of this week’s radio

ENTERTAINMENT An Cúinne Dána

SUNDAY, 6.30PM, RTE RNAG� ★★★★ The book of the month is Athmháthair, an Irish-language translation of Michela Murgia’s award winning book Accabadora. The book focuses on a dark aspect of Sardinian folklore associated with euthanasia, and here it’s discussed with leading writers and folklorists.

This Cultural Life

THURSDAY, 11AM, BBC RADIO 4� ★★★★★ Michael Palin, actor, comedian and globetrotting TV documentary presenter, talks about the creative influences that formed him. He starts with his indulgent mother to whom he would read out Shakespeare, playing all the parts, and the joys of listening to radio comedy at home including his favourite The Goon Show. He also recalls a demanding performance in Alan Bleasdale’s drama GBH and what could be fractious writing sessions on Monty Python. And his favourite sketch? The Fish Slapping Dance, which he says works all around the world and even raised a laugh when he showed it to his guide in North Korea.

FACTUAL

History’s Secret Heroes MONDAY, 3.30PM, BBC RADIO FOUR

★★★★★

Helena Bonham Carter has tales of resistance, courage and deception from the

Michael Palin talks about his influences Second World War. She starts with the Mills and Boon writer Ida Cook who, together with her sister Louise, risked her own life to help Jewish refugees escape Nazi persecution. The sisters used their genuine passion for music as cover to visit opera houses in Germany where they mixed with Nazi high society. They would then return to England laden with jewellery, as they smuggled out wealth that could then help ease the passage of its Jewish owners out of Nazi Germany to safety.

The Life Scientific TUESDAY, 9AM, BBC RADIO 4�

★★★★ Dinosaurs continue to fascinate us and today’s guest, the fossil hunter Dr Nick Longrich, has discovered more than a dozen new species from Mexico to Morocco to the Isle of Wight. He talks about his work in the field, and also the less glamorous task of sifting through long-forgotten bones in museum cabinets and drawers that have set him off on searches. He grew up in Alaska the son of a crab fisherman, where he spent much of his childhood out in nature — ‘it was a lot like Lord of the Flies — good times.’

Helen Lewis Has Left The Chat

WEDNESDAY, 9.30AM, BBC RADIO 4� ★★★★ Helen Lewis explores the extraordinary rise in instant messaging — there are now an estimated 2.7 billion users on WhatsApp alone. Instant messaging at work and within families and relationships has obvious attractions, but its speed and the casual nature of the communication nature can lead to indiscretions, so there are definite dangers.

DRAMA

Howl’s Moving Castle

EASTER SUNDAY, 3PM, BBC RADIO 4� ★★★★ Robert Bathurst narrates and Julia McKenzie stars in this adaptation of the fantasy novel by Diana Wynne-Jones featuring wizardry and spells, a floating castle and the Wicked Witch of the Waste. Studio Ghibli transformed the story into an Oscarnominated animation in 2004.

MUSIC

The Full Score TUESDAY, 1PM, LYRIC FM ★★★★

Pianist Yulianna Avdeeva joins the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G.