Radio Week
The picks of the best of this week’s radio
ENTERTAINMENT Great-Uncle Harry: A
Tale of War and Empire MONDAY-FRIDAY, 9.45AM, BBC RADIO 4 ★★★★★
Don’t miss this compelling adaptation of Michael Palin’s book, which follows the former Python as he sets out to find out more about a great-uncle who was killed in the First World War. It was a quest that involved hundreds of hours of painstaking detective work, which unearthed an extraordinary story.
Madame Bovary
MONDAY-FRIDAY, 7.15AM, 12.15PM, 5.15PM, BBC RADIO 4 EXTRA ★★★★ John Hurt is the narrator for this ten-part adaptation of Gustave Flaubert’s French masterpiece of betrayal and wantonness, first broadcast in 2006 and getting a rare repeat every weekday over the next two weeks. Conrad Nelson is Dr Charles Bovary, who feels happy for the first time in his life when he marries the beautiful Emma. However, his young wife is distraught to discover her marriage lacks the passion of her fantasies and soon looks for excitement elsewhere...
Ómós Áite
WEDNESDAY, 2.05PM, RNAG ★★★★ Lecturer and poet Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh travels to Emyvale in Co. Monaghan to meet poet Caitríona Ní Chléirchín to discuss the importance of place in her writing. It is said that the landlords of Emyvale won the town in a game of cards, and this programme starts off in a former landlord’s house where Caitríona now lives. They go to Tully Lough, a place which features in many local ghost stories, and to the town boundary, which has a central role in Caitríona’s life, in the political life of the town and in her writing.
FACTUAL BBC Trending: Extreme
SUNDAY, 11.30AM, BBC WORLD SERVICE ★★★★
TikTok was once seen as a fairly harmless app where young people could post lip syncs and dance videos, but it has quickly developed into something much more worrying and now seems to be being used as a tool to drive harmful behaviour in the real world. In this timely report, the BBC’s Disinformation correspondent Marianna Spring investigates the social media giant to find out if things are getting out of control.
Sliced Bread
THURSDAY, 12.30PM, BBC RADIO 4 ★★★★★
Science presenter Greg Foot returns with a new series of the shows that investigates the latest ad-hyped products and trending fads that promise to make us healthier, happier and greener. But are they really ‘the best thing since sliced bread’ or just marketing nonsense? The first episode looks at the rise in vaping to find out if these electronic cigarettes are a safer alternative to smoking — or actually doing more harm than good?
MUSIC Indie Forever
FRIDAY, 7PM, BBC 6 MUSIC ★★★★ September is Indie Forever season on BBC 6 Music. Nathan Shepherd will be hosting a four-hour long Indie Party, featuring classic tracks from the likes of the Smiths, Sonic Youth and the Pixies.
Dan Hegarty
TUESDAY, 11PM, 2FM ★★★★
This week’s visit to the Session Archives finds tracks from Whipping Boy (1990), Daire Heffernan (2022), and Junkster (1995). This was the first of a number of sessions that Whipping Boy recorded in Studio 8. This one — recorded for Dave Fanning — came two years before their debut album Submarine.