The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
CHARLOTTE RUNCIE
RADIO CRITIC
A theme of creativity and fragility ribbons through this week’s radio, beginning as Lee Ross and Rosie Cavaliero star in Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (today, Radio 4, 2.45pm), an autobiographical musical drama by Ray Davies based on The Kinks’ 1969 album of the same name, co-written by Davies and Paul
Sirett. The result is an exploration of what it means to be British and working class amid
1960s music and post-war social upheaval, and how that era looks at a distance of 50 years. It’s “a play set yesterday about all our tomorrows,” says Sir Ray.
On Desert Island
Discs (Sunday, Radio 4, 11.15am), this week’s castaway is Russell T Davies, the screenwriter and TV producer behind a string of quirky hit dramas, including Queer as Folk, Years and Years, and, most famously, the 2005 revival of Doctor Who. Davies has won many awards, and was credited by fellow screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce with having saved British TV drama from extinction.
Talking of extinction, The Extinction Tapes (Monday to Friday, Radio 4, 1.45pm) is a slightly depressing idea, but an important one. Rob Newman takes a look at five extinct or almost-extinct species, their unique characteristics, and the role that humans have played in their disappearance from the world. His first extinct creature is the fabulously named Alabama pigtoe mussel, threatened due to industrial water pollution. Other species to which Newman bids a sad farewell include the Yangtze River Dolphin, Steller’s sea cow and Miss Waldron’s Red Colobus.
Art of Now: Playing Well (Tuesday, Radio 4, 11.30am) is the first instalment of a strand of programmes on the important topic of mental health and music. In the opening episode, 6 Music’s Chris Hawkins takes a sensitive look at the life and legacy of Scott Hutchison, the Scottish singer-songwriter and frontman of the highly influential and successful indie rock band Frightened Rabbit. Hutchison died by suicide in 2018. His former bandmates, including his brother, Grant, discuss Hutchison’s life and his creative endeavours.
Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner is set in a futuristic dystopia. Specifically, November 2019. Well, now we’re here, how did the film shape our imaginations of what the future will look like? Was Scott’s nightmare world really so far away from our own reality? All this week, The Essay: The Year of Blade Runner (Monday to
Friday, Radio 3, 10.45pm) examines the film’s legacy, and in Wednesday’s edition, writer Ken Hollings takes the film’s Voight Kampff test.
I haven’t really enjoyed the first two series of Where’s the F in News (Thursday, Radio 4, 11.00pm), the femalefocused panel show, but I admire the panellists taking part in the first episode of series three (comedians Jo Brand and Jayde Adams and performance artist Bryony Kimmings) very much, so I’ll be tuning in with high hopes. Host Jo Bunting invites the guests to take on challenges inspired by current events.
And all this week,
The Full Works Concert (Monday to Friday, Classic FM, 8.00pm) shares a selection of the best classical music releases of 2019. The pieces end with a performance on Friday by pianist Claire Huangci, who has called piano playing her “lifeline” and means of emotional release. She plays Paderewski’s Piano Concerto.
Read The Week in Radio by Charlotte Runcie every Wednesday in
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