Radio Week
The picks of the best of this week’s radio
ENTERTAINMENT Marty In The Morning
THURSDAY, 7AM, RTÉ LYRIC FM ★★★★
Daniel Hope joins Marty Whelan in this week’s Throwback Thursday, recorded as the world-renowned classical violinist visited Ireland to film a new television series in search of Irish music and soul.
FACTUAL Idir Mise Agus Tusa
MONDAY, 1.30PM, RTÉ RNAG ★★★
Timlín Ó Cearnaigh interviews Bríd Bean Uí Bhrádaigh – or Biddy Mhadgie Frank as she was better known. Bríd was speaking in 1988 after the funeral of her son Kevin Brady, who was one of three people killed by loyalist Michael Stone at an IRA funeral in Milltown Cemetery in Belfast.
Teller Of The Unexpected:
The Life of Roald Dahl
MON-FRI, 9.45AM, BBC RADIO 4 ★★★★
Roald Dahl filled the pages of his books with colourful characters, but his own life was full of tragedy. A flying accident left Dahl in pain for the rest of his days, and his family endured far more than their fair share of anguish. Owen Teale reads from Matthew Dennison’s account of the life of the author.
Documentary On One:
The Taliban And Me
SATURDAY, 2PM, RTÉ RADIO 1 ★★★★★
Twenty years after the US invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban returned to Kabul a
year ago. The city’s fall followed the end of the US occupation that began in the wake of the 911 attacks. Overnight, life changed for those who had called the Afghan capital their home. The Taliban And Me tells the story of three women – including Irish teacher Aoife McManus – and how their lives changed when the Taliban returned. It includes onthe-ground reporting and interviews from Kabul by journalist Hannah McCarthy, who travelled to Afghanistan last November.
DRAMA A Month In The Country MONDAY-FRIDAY, 10.45PM,
BBC RADIO 4 ★★★★
Two former soldiers, both suffering from the horrors of the First World War, spend a summer working in a Yorkshire village.
One of them has to remove layers of whitewash that have hidden a church mural for centuries; the other has the task of digging down for the bones of one of a villager’s long-lost ancestors. As the two men uncover the distant past, their own, more recent traumas come to the fore. Will Howard is the narrator for JL Carr’s novel about the long shadows of the past.
Agatha Christie’s The
Rose And The Yew Tree
THURSDAY, 2.15PM, BBC RADIO 4 ★★★★
The beautiful Isabella is expected to marry a handsome war hero, but she shocks everyone in the little seaside town of St Loo when she runs off with John Gabriel. Gabriel is small, ugly and very ambitious – he’s also, to the mystification of at least one observer, irresistible to women. Toby Jones and Ioanna Kimbook star in this adaptation of a novel written by Agatha Christie under the name Mary Westmacott.
MUSIC The Alternative
TUESDAY, 11PM, RTÉ 2FM ★★★★
There’s a new session on tonight’s show with one of the most exciting rising Irish acts. Daire Heffernan released her Wasters EP last month. Many comparisons have been made, and many more are to come, but let’s just say her songs stand up well when played alongside anthems by artists such as PJ Harvey and Nadine Shah. Daire and her band made their first visit to Studio 8 recently, and Dan brings us tracks and an interview on tonight’s show.