The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
CHARLOTTE RUNCIE
RADIO CRITIC
Are you ready to relax for Christmas yet? I’m not sure if The Problem of Leisure (Saturday, Radio 4, 8.00pm) will be a help or a hindrance. Phil Tinline digs into the archive to chart the history of our fear that increasing automation will make human endeavour redundant, and leave us all twiddling our thumbs. It hasn’t happened yet, but why are we so scared that it might?
The seductive drama and mythology of the Norfolk tides are the subject of Kevin Crossley-Holland’s “radiophonic poem” in Art of Now: The Tides of the Staithe (Sunday, Radio 4, 4.30pm), which evokes the juxtaposition between the tranquil bird calls at low tide and Norfolk’s menacing, fast-encroaching and transformative waters.
Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli returns for a third series of Bruno Tonioli at the Opera (Sunday, Radio 2, 9.00pm), his passionate and well-informed trip around operatic history. The first episode is themed around parenthood in different operas, and why it usually seems to involve heartbreak, betrayal and murder. Lovely family themes for Christmas, then.
Speaking of betrayal, the astonishing true tale of fraud among glamorous socialites is told in Drama: Fake Heiress (Monday, Radio 4, 2.15pm, and a six-part podcast on BBC Sounds). It’s the remarkable story of Anna Delvey, who claimed to be an heiress worth $67million, wanting to establish a major new arts centre in New York City. She partied and dined with wealthy New Yorkers to secure their investment – but as it transpired, everything about Delvey was an act.
We’re living in something of a craft renaissance at the moment, with a surge in general appreciation for the skill of artisans over the convenience of massproduced items. What If We Stopped Buying Stuff and Started Making It? (Tuesday, Radio 4, 11.30am) explores what our world could look like if we made even more things ourselves. Contributors include green woodworker Barnaby Carder, known as “Barn the Spoon”, as well as people who run community potteries, blacksmith’s forges, repair workshops and public making spaces.
The subject of this week’s Soul Music (Wednesday, Radio 4, 9.00am) is a disco classic that has particular relevance for this familyfocused time of year.
We Are Family by Sister Sledge, written by
Bernard Edwards and
Nile Rodgers, hails from 1978 and the peak of the disco era. Rather than just celebrating blood relations, it has come to be adopted by people of all races and some marginalised groups to celebrate the bonds between friends in adverse circumstances.
Why are we all so obsessed with the idea of a grand country house? We can’t get enough of them, from watching Downton Abbey to poking around National Trust properties at the weekend. In the latest Free Thinking (Thursday, Radio 3, 10.00pm), Matthew Sweet discusses the subject with his guests in the imposing surroundings of Osterley House in west London.
And the perennially successful cult improvised comedy Austentatious (Friday, Radio 4, 11.30am), in which a cast of eight comic actors (and a violinist) cook up a new festive Jane Austen novel completely from scratch using devised titles from their live audience, makes a welcome return. With previous titles including Mansfield Shark and Strictly Come Darcy, the result is guaranteed literary silliness.
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