Radio Week
The picks of the best of this week’s radio
ENTERTAINMENT The Michael Ball Show
SUNDAY, 11PM, BBC RADIO 2 ★★★★
Jim Kerr, founding member of Simple Minds, joins Michael on his regular brunch show. Jim, who these days also runs a boutique hotel in Sicily, tells Michael about the band’s latest album, Direction Of The Heart. Michael will also give details of the Terry Wogan Fundraiser of the Year Award, which honours some of the volunteers who have raised money for BBC Children In Need.
The Lyric Feature
SUNDAY, 6PM, LYRIC FM ★★★★
This third episode of Root And Branch references the resistance of holly (cuileann in Irish), one of Ireland’s few native evergreen trees. There is a great deal of tradition and folklore associated with holly, so musician Brían Mac Gloinn and ecologist Anja Murray speak with Ríonach Uí Ógáin, former director of the National Folklore Collection at UCD. And because holly has such a novel approach to life, Dr Noeleen Smith explains why it goes to such lengths to produce its shiny, spiky leaves.
FACTUAL
Sleep Well With Michael Mosley
MONDAY, 10.45PM, BBC RADIO 4 ★★★★
All this week, Michael Mosley (pictured) will help you drift off to sleep. He’ll be using tried and tested techniques,
Michael Mosley including meditation, breath control and yoga, that will help ease the cares of the day from your shoulders. Michael, who’s had his own struggles with insomnia, takes you on a sonic journey, deep inside yourself, where a cluster of brain cells hold the key to a relaxed and peaceful state of mind.
Flight Of The Ospreys TUESDAY, 9.30AM, BBC RADIO 4
★★★★
Ospreys were previously a common breeder in Ireland but were persecuted to extinction by the 19th century. Regularly seen on migration in spring and autumn, they are expected to breed again in Northern Ireland in the near future. As the days grow shorter and colder, these handsome, migratory birds of prey are heading from Scotland to West Africa. Over the next ten weeks, Emily Knight and a team of conservationists will report on their epic journey from Loch Garten to Ghana.
DRAMA
Spoken Stories: Creatures Of The Earth
SUNDAY, 7.30PM, RTÉ RADIO 1 ★★★★
Near Adelaide by Christine Dwyer Hickey is read by Emma-Dargan Reid. A girl’s home life is filled mainly with men — her father and those he employed in his timberyard in remote Australia. But her faraway boarding school is populated only by women. Her deep curiosity and love of the world, along with the affection she enjoys from those around at home and her school don’t abate the absence she feels for her mother she misses.
Dangerous Visions
WEDNESDAY, 2.15PM, BBC RADIO 4 ★★★★★
In this creepy, all-too-believable futuristic thriller, doctors have become redundant and healthcare is in the hands of an organisation called Medpatch. Diagnosis is done through DNA analysis and robots perform surgery. Jenna (Ophelia Lovibond), a trained doctor, finds her skills redundant, in this strange new world. She gets a job in one of Medpatch’s medical call centre where, as this sinister plot unravels, she finds the dark truth about Medpatch.