Radio Week
The picks of the best of this week’s radio
ENTERTAINMENT The Michael Ball Show
SUNDAY, 11AM, BBC RADIO 2 ★★★★ Alex Jones is looking after Michael Ball’s brunchtime . Alex will be joined by the duo, Pepsi and Shirlie who’ll be talking about their new book , It’s All In Black And White: Wham! Life and Friendship. In the book Pepsi DeMacque-Crockett and Shirlie Kemp look back on their lives, as backing singers for Wham!, their own years in the spotlight and their 40 year friendship. Steve Backshall and Helen Glover are also on the show to talk about their book Wildlings: How to Raise Your Family In Nature.
The Parrot Sketch
THURSDAY, 3.30PM, BBC RADIO 4 EXTRA
Parrots are gorgeous looking creatures, which is why they have featured in so many paintings through the centuries. This, along with their ability to imitate the human voice and their extreme longevity, has made them popular companions for humans. Tony Hawks makes a nod to John Cleese’s famous parrot sketch, hears from some talkative parrots, whose human companions struggle to get a word in edgeways and looks at the long history of the relationship between humans and these beautiful birds.
The Frost Tapes
MONDAY, 11.30AM, BBC RADIO 4 ★★★★ ‘My whole life,’ Jane Fonda told David Frost, ‘has been an act.’ The pair met in 1960 when both were in their early 20s for what was David’s first-ever interview. He interviewed her a number of times after that as we can hear in this compilation of clips put together by David’s son Wilfred. Jane talks about her politics and philosophy, and tells David that, if she’d had a happier life, she probably wouldn’t have taken up acting.
FACTUAL
In The Studio TUESDAY,11.30AM, BBC WORLD
SERVICE ★★★★
They’ve been making sublime musical instruments, especially violins, in the Italian town of Cremona, since the 16th century — and they are still doing it. The streets and squares of the town are full of shops with displays of fine violins and there’s also a violin museum. The brilliant young violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason visits Cremona, the birthplace of the great violin maker Stradivarius, to hear about the town’s musical history, learn about the ancient methods for violin making and find out for himself just how good a Cremona violin can sound.
The Exchange
WEDNESDAY, 8PM, BBC RADIO 4 ★★★★ John and Emily have both done something very difficult. John grew up in an Amish community in America; Emily grew up in a Hasidic Jewish community in London. Their childhoods were spent living lives that were apart from the rest of the world and they both decided to take the frightening step of leaving behind everything they knew and build new lives. In this fascinating documentary, they tell Catherine Carr how they survived.
DRAMA Drama on One
SUNDAY, 8PM, RTE RADIO ONE ★★★★ Escapism and Dime Novels by Gerard Freixes Ribera. The regime’s censors say Franco’s Spain is a paradise and there’s no crime at all — but as a prison guard, Carlos knows better. He passes the time penning pulp novels. Convict Victor Ramos is also a writer of dime novels and his stories contain coded criticism of Franco. When Carlos helps Victor, he steps within reach of the regime’s iron fist.