Radio Week
The picks of the best of this week’s radio
ENTERTAINMENT Liveline Special
MONDAY, 5.45PM, RTÉ RADIO ONE HHHHH With recommendations for all ages, children take over Liveline to tell Joe Duffy what we should be watching, reading and listening to over the festive period. On Christmas Eve at 9am Joe brings his trademark cheer into the homes of listeners all around the country with callers, giveaways and live performances from Kodaline, Erica Cody, Declan O’Rourke, Aoife Scott and Róisín O.
Lottie’s Celeb News Special
CHRISTMAS DAY, 2PM, 2FM HHHHH
Lottie Ryan (pictured) presents two hours of the best celebrity stories and music from 2020 and then carries 2FM listeners through the evening on Christmas Day.
Dermot and Dave
MON-THURS, 9AM, TODAY FM HHHHH The day is always better with a bit of craic in it, and Dermot and Dave are a guaranteed beam of daily light relief. They’re always up for a laugh, love a funny story, and are only too happy to slag themselves off as well – there are no sacred cows here.
FACTUAL
Shine Your Light: Solstice
SUNDAY, 8.30PM, RTÉ RADIO ONE HHHHH Ruth Smith presents an audio exploration of finding the light in the darkness, not just at the Winter Solstice but across 2020, weaving stories, song and performance to, as Seamus Heaney put it, ‘set the darkness echoing’. Highlights include singer Dana Masters in performance with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Other guests include Galway poet Elaine Feeney, Saint Sister, spoken word artist Felispeaks and musician Jafaris.
Sure T’was Better
CHRISTMAS EVE, 1.30PM, RTÉ RADIO ONE HHHHH
Presenter Will Hanafin and his uber festive panel of Emer McLysaght, Jules Coll and Pauline McLynn rip open the wrapping from Christmas archives past to see if it was better or worse back then.
DRAMA Christie
SUNDAY, 7.30PM, RTÉ RADIO ONE HHHH
Marie and Joey are from the Liberties area of Dublin. They are certainly a match made in heaven but the challenges they face in trying to become a family, with baby on the way in modern day Dublin are most definitely sometimes ‘hellish’. However this plucky pair carries on regardless and one can’t help but root for them.
The Mystery Of Edwin Drood
MONDAY 21-NEW YEAR’S DAY,
10.45AM, 7.45PM, BBC RADIO 4 HHHHH
A suspicious death, dark doings in the crypt and opium addiction add to the mysteries of Charles Dickens’s unfinished novel. This tenpart dramatisation draws on Dickens’s life to supply a convincing conclusion
Christmas By The Lake CHRISTMAS DAY, 2.15PM, BBC RADIO FOUR
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Rachel Joyce’s play concerns Walter and Mary (Robert Lindsay and Niamh Cusack), in their 60s and hating Christmas. After an incident at the lake, an unlikely friendship develops that brings a sparkle to the festive season.