Radio 4’s odd tradition proved an unexpected treat
We have strange ways of marking the festive season. In Cornwall, wassailers bang pots and bless the trees with cider. In Stonehaven, the streets are filled with fireballs. And in another peculiar folk tradition, Radio 4 hands the reins of the programme to “guest editors”. Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, those trusted with shaping the news agenda included ex-top Gear presenter James May and pop star Ellie Goulding.
In practice, it’s mostly Today usual, albeit with half a dozen segments scattered through the three-hour programme in which a good guest can make their mark, interrupting the news-sport-weather churn in interesting ways. Several memorable moments came on Monday from the final guest editor, Emma Walmsley, CEO of GSK (formerly Glaxosmithkline). Her chosen theme was “how to be a healthier nation”, and her chosen tone unwavering optimism – which proved surprisingly infectious.
Walmsley went to Kew Gardens – a soothing soundscape, all swishing leaves and rain-patter on glass roofs – to remind us that Kew’s not merely a nice day out but also a cutting-edge research centre. You never know which plant might turn out to be harbouring a wonder-drug. The
Madagascar periwinkle, with its tiny pink flowers, was purely ornamental until the 1950s, when it was discovered that chemicals within it could be used to treat childhood leukaemia and Hodgkin’s disease. Kew is not only tackling disease, but famine, too: we heard how their team are working on an Ethiopian wild banana relative called “the tree against hunger”, because it doesn’t fail in a drought.
I was less enlightened by Walmsley’s breezy interview with Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury. He astutely noted that people have lately been quite upset about “wars and stuff ” but wanted to reassure us that “God is in control”. When the show stuck to physical rather than spiritual health, it was on firmer ground.
Nobel Laureate Paul Nurse showed schoolchildren around the Francis Crick Institute, answering questions, and reminding them of medical milestones: “We’ve learnt, over my lifetime, what the molecules are that cause cancer.” He paused to introduce a colleague called Clovis. What does Clovis do? “He transfers little bits of liquids from one tube to another. Very carefully, very accurately. And using that technique he can investigate the nature of life.” It’s a comfort, knowing there are Clovises in the world.
Personally, I am blasé about Big
Pharma. I even feel unwontedly warm towards it this week, since I am writing under the influence of its drugs: I have flu, and am up to the eyeballs in Lemsip. But less phlegmatic (or less phlegmy) listeners might have felt uneasy about the country’s flagship morning news programme uncritically handing editorial control over to the boss of a drug company which has not always avoided controversy.
But pushback was being saved for the end. There are folk rituals in which an ordinary member of the public is elevated to high status, treated like a king for a day, then torn to pieces at the end. (Think of The Wicker Man.)
was operating to a similar scheme, giving Walmsley herself a grilling in its final half-hour.
She began to paint a glowing picture of what the future of the NHS might be like “if we unleash the power of its data sets” – until Today’s Simon Jack chipped in: “By which you mean our medical records… ‘I’d love to get my hands on all that medical data.’ And people are a bit uncomfortable about that.” He went on: “Being cynical, some people say: ‘I freely give my medical information, so you can make a drug which you can sell back to me later on?’” It was a vigorous enough back-and-forth to fend off any accusations of lack of balance.
From one weird winter tradition to another: pantomime. For the first time ever, Radio 3 commissioned its own panto. Have they gone populist? Oh no, they haven’t! On Friday, The New Music Show gave us the premiere of Adam de la Cour’s avant-garde composition Oh Bobby!, and I’m still recovering from it.
From what I could make out, the plot was something about time-travel, pumice and Bobby Davro. It had a script co-written by CHATGPT, and a computer-generated dame called “Windows Twankey”. It was weird, baffling, almost unlistenable – and therefore exactly the sort of thing that late-night Radio 3 ought to be doing.
I couldn’t endure it to the end, but did chuckle at one moment: a surreal spoof interview with a child. Did he enjoy the programme? “I don’t really remember any of the show-thingy,” he said, “but I remember lowering pigeons into a carrier bag outside.”