Radio Week
The picks of the best of this week’s radio
ENTERTAINMENT
Chapters Of Magnificence
SUNDAY, 6.30PM, RTÉ RADIO ONE
Boxer Michael Carruth joins Des Cahill to relive his gold medal victory at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.
The Lyric Feature
SUNDAY, 6PM, LYRIC FM
The lapwing is considered by many to be Ireland’s national bird and is a much-loved inhabitant of rough fields and wet pastures right across the country. In this episode Anja Murray and Brían Mac Gloinn travel to Offaly to see some breeding lapwings, hear about their lives and breeding habits from ornithologist Ricky Wheelan, and discover the challenges and solutions faced by these stunning birds through a conservation project in the coast of Donegal.
Being Roman With Mary Beard
TUESDAY, 9AM, BBC RADIO 4
The image of the Roman legionary is of a formidable figure, and part of an unstoppable fighting force. But as Mary Beard continues to explore the lives of real people in the Roman Empire, she finds chinks in the armour. Today she focuses on Claudius Terentianus, whose letters to his father show him to be constantly moaning. After a poorly paid stint in the naval fleet escorting grain shipments to Rome, he manages to engineer a transfer to a legion but even then he seems to spend more time thinking about shopping and making sure he has a comfortable retirement than actually fighting.
FACTUAL Sunday Feature
SUNDAY, 7.15PM, BBC RADIO 3
In 1924 the BBC had a radio hit with acclaimed cellist Beatrice Harrison playing in the woods at night and being answered by a nightingale. Musician Kate Kennedy re-examines the event, and rumours that it was staged with a bird impersonator, then heads to the woods herself.
History’s Secret Heroes
MONDAY, 3.30PM, BBC RADIO 4
Another astonishing story of bravery in the Second World War. A 24-year-old Belgian woman, Andree De Jongh, devised and operated the largest escape line for Allied airmen in Nazi-occupied Europe, helping them travel 800 miles through Belgium and France and over the Pyrenees into Spain. She personally escorted 118 men, while more than 800 made it to safety along what she called The Comet Line. She was eventually caught, tortured and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, but she survived and went on to work as a nurse helping people with leprosy in Africa.
Adhmhaidin
MONDAY, 8AM, RTÉ RNAG
News and current affairs programme, covering national, Gaeltacht and international stories. Today the programme will be broadcast live from the RTÉ studio in Cork, in a special programme focusing on the major issues to be discussed during the European elections.
DRAMA Ón Domhan Thíos
SUNDAY, 10.40AM, RTÉ RNAG Entertaining drama series about a group of friends who uncover a mystery involving a fairy fort and a changeling from the Otherworld.
Helen Wheels by Fionn Foley
SUNDAY, 8PM, RTÉ RADIO ONE
A comic tale of narcotics, fast food and a mother’s love for her son, set in Belfast at the height of the pandemic. Helen’s son, Lorcan, works as a bicycle courier for a food delivery company. She is alarmed to discover drug packages in her son’s delivery bag and decides to intervene, taking the bike out to make final deliveries, and warning Lorcan’s customers to never call on her son again. After a few chance meetings, the adventure takes a turn when Helen decides to sample the merchandise. Starring Kerri Quinn (Helen), Cillian Lenaghan, James Murphy, Gerard McCabe, Niamh McAllister, and Charlie Bonner.
MUSIC Radio 3 in Concert
WEDNESDAY, 7.30PM, BBC RADIO 3
Tonight’s concert includes Edward Elgar’s ever-popular Enigma Variations and A Shropshire Lad by George Butterworth. The first half of the evening features a new work, the European premiere of Stephen Hough’s Piano Concerto, performed by the pianist himself and which he says contains ‘a large splash of romantic bravura’.
Radio 1’s Big Weekend
FRIDAY FROM 11AM, BBC RADIO 1
Now that it looks like summer might actually be on its way, the music festival season begins with this year’s weekend festival from Stockwood Park in Luton. The build-up continues throughout the day, before the first big names appear on stage later, among them Chase & Status, drum and bass band Rudimental and Ella Henderson. The music continues all weekend, with Raye and Rag’n’Bone Man appearing on Saturday and Coldplay headlining on Sunday.
Aedín In The Afternoon
FRIDAY FROM 11AM, LYRIC FM
Aedín includes a very impressive three-part harmony trio, Rufous Nightjar, this afternoon from their recently released album Songs for Three Voices. There’s also a salute to composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, considered to be one of the founders of Hollywood film music, and mellow movie moments from two very fine Japanese composers. Plus, Irish tunes from pianist Ruth McGinley, Martin Hayes and The Common Ground Ensemble and Ye Vagabonds.