The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
CHARLOTTE RUNCIE
RADIO CRITIC
The history of connection and breaking down of barriers is a theme on this week’s radio, beginning with Archive on 4: Build the Wall! (today, Radio 4, 8.00pm), which explores the phenomenon of modern political leaders fetishising the building of new walls, even as we celebrate 30 years since the Berlin Wall came down. Katy
Long considers the significance and symbolism of political walls and ask why border walls are still being built, when new virtual technologies are increasingly more effective than concrete barriers.
The surprising history of experimental music behind the Iron Curtain is the subject for Sunday Feature: Poles Apart (Sunday, Radio 3, 6.45pm). Robert Worby tells the story of how the Polish Radio Experimental Studio was established in Warsaw in 1957, as the first electronic music studio in the Eastern Bloc.
Now the music created is being rediscovered by a new generation of Poles.
Lord Buckethead, the intergalactic space lord who ran against Theresa May in her constituency in 2017, was a character played on that occasion by the comedian Jon Harvey, as he revealed earlier this year. In Could an Ancient Athenian Fix Britain? (Monday to Friday, Radio 4, 1.45pm), Harvey shares what he’s learned about politics through the lens of Ancient Greek democracy. He asks, if an Athenian democrat time-travelled to 2019, what would he make of what’s going on in Britain, and could he fix the chaos?
Radio 3 is exploring Weimar Germany for the 100th anniversary of the latter this week. In Free Thinking (Tuesday, Radio 4, 10.00pm), Matthew Sweet discusses the glamorous and provocative world of cabaret culture in Weimar. He’s joined by contributors including performer Le Gateau Chocolat; Florence Ostende, curator of the Barbican’s Into the Night exhibition; and Gaylene Gould, Head of Cinemas and Events at BFI Southbank. Together they consider the legacy of Weimar in making cabarets and clubs centres for freedom of expression across the world.
This week, The Essay: The Weimar Years (Monday to Friday, Radio 3, 10.45pm) also delves into life in the Weimar Republic, including the historian Jochen Hung giving an overview of Berlin at the time; Camilla Smith looking at art; Clarisse Loughrey exploring its cinema; and Ute Lemper on Weimar music and song. Wednesday’s edition, however, sounds the most racy and intriguing, as the writer Katie Sutton looks at the time’s distinctive attitude to sexuality.
In Under the Greenwood Tree, Thomas Hardy wrote that “Almost every species of tree has its voice… At the passing of the breeze the fir-trees sob and moan no less distinctly than they rock.” The evocative rustling of leaves in the breeze, known as susurrations, are the theme of the atmospheric The Susurrations of Trees (Thursday, Radio 4, 11.30am). We will hear the distinctive sounds of different trees, from aspens that sound like rain, to hissing ash trees and whooshing pines, as well as man-made music that has been inspired by tree sounds.
Radio 3 in Concert (Friday, Radio 3, 7.30pm) comes live from London’s Royal Festival Hall, with Andrew McGregor presenting the EFG London Jazz Festival opening gala. Performers include Cécile McLorin Salvant and Judi Jackson, appearing along with Guy Barker and the EFG London Jazz Festival Orchestra.
Read The Week in Radio by Charlotte Runcie every Wednesday in
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