...AND THE BEST RADIO
SUNDAY
DRAMA: SWEENEY TODD AND THE STRING OF PEARLS RADIO 4, 3PM
No, not a new Sondheim musical but a dramatisation of an 1846 ‘penny dreadful’ about the demon barber of Fleet Street that involves pearls, cross-dressing, madness and, of course, pork pies. A terrific cast includes Rufus Sewell and Jonathan Cake as the investigators, Martin Jarvis as the man with the cut-throat razor and Joanne Whalley as his partner in grisly crime, Mrs Lovett.
BORDERLINE: A POSTCARD FROM THE EDGE OF THE UNION RADIO 4, 7.15PM
The exact nature and position of the Northern Irish border is a rather pressing question these days. In a performance to a virtual Northern Irish audience, County Down-born comedian Patrick Kielty is well placed to give us the lowdown on the state of the nation, from pre-ceasefire to post-Brexit.
MONDAY
BOOK OF THE WEEK: THE PHOTOGRAPHER AT 16 RADIO 4, 9.45AM & 12.30AM, MON-FRI
Poet George Szirtes reads from his award-winning memoir about his mother, who took her own life at 51 after surviving a concentration camp and the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. A tender but unsparing account – told backwards – of a life in a turbulent period of the 20th Century.
WEDNESDAY
THE CLASSIC FM CONCERT WITH JOHN SUCHET CLASSIC FM, 8PM
It’s St Patrick’s Day and John Suchet marks the occasion with a range of Irish music, from Danny Boy to a piano concerto by John Field (inventor of the nocturne), Charles Stanford’s Irish Rhapsody No. 3 performed by cellist Raphael Wallfisch, and Riverdance, the Eurovision interval act turned global dance phenomenon (still going after 27 years). Meanwhile, The Folk Show With Mark Radcliffe on Radio 2 (9pm) offers tracks by Irish musicians such as Ye Vagabonds, Lankum and Daoirí Farrell.
THURSDAY
ADVENTURES WITH DENTURES: THE STORY OF DENTISTRY WORLD SERVICE, 10AM
There were no such thing as dentists prior to the 18th Century; until then, blacksmiths, travelling showmen and barber-surgeons extracted dodgy molars. Rajan Datar and guest experts look at the history of all things gnasher-related, starting with French physician Pierre Fauchard, the father of modern dentistry.
MEET DAVID SEDARIS RADIO 4, 6.30PM
It’s 25 years since the US author first brought his droll, trenchantly observed stories to Radio 4 with the wonderful Santaland Diaries. In this eighth series of Meet David Sedaris there are more satirical offerings in his essays and diary entries recorded at his Sussex home during lockdown.
SATURDAY
TANGO DIARIES RADIO 4, 3PM
The tango – and especially the torrid, slinky Argentinian version – has captured our imaginations thanks to Strictly, and now classes and clubs abound. Playwright Ron Hutchinson has written five vignettes revealing how and why different people have become obsessed by the dance. Among the cast is West End musical star Summer Strallen.