The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
CHARLOTTE RUNCIE
RADIO CRITIC
There are probably better times to think about going to the pub than 8.30am on a Saturday, but nonetheless Global Business (Saturday,
BBC World Service, 8.30am) is a timely examination of the great change currently happening to the British pub industry. Since 2001, it’s said, the UK has lost a quarter of its pubs.
But should we take an optimistic view and look at the flourishing of community-owned pubs and independent micropubs? Presenter John Murphy goes on a highly professional radio pub crawl to find out.
Michael Berkeley’s guest on Private Passions (Sunday, Radio 3, 12.00noon) is Jonathan Aitken, a colourful character to say the least. And there’s been plenty of music in his life, from his childhood singing for Benjamin Britten to leading the carol service at the Old Bailey last December.
It takes a particular kind of bravery to be a stand-up, but what are the moments that really stick in a comedian’s mind? All this week on The Essay: Top of the Bill (Monday to Friday, Radio 3, 10.45pm), five comedians talk about key moments in their comedy careers. They include Adrian Edmondson recalling the funniest thing he ever saw in his early days of alternative comedy; Susan Calman reflecting on the life-changing experience of seeing Victoria Wood perform live; and Deborah Frances-White on being one of the first people to see Phoebe Waller-Bridge perform as Fleabag on stage.
Also all this week, there’s a new voice on The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show (Monday to Friday, Radio 2, 6.30am) as Rylan Clark-Neal makes his debut as the official deputy breakfast show host while Ball is away. He’s proved to be funny, approachable and a bit of a star in the first year of his Saturday afternoon show, so it’ll be interesting to see how he fares in the highly prized morning slot.
Mathematicians often describe their subject as beautiful, though it’s a claim that can seem a bit baffling to people without much affinity with numbers. Is the beauty of maths the same as the beauty in a painting? Mathematician Vicky Neale, a Fellow of Balliol College,
Oxford, presents a meditation on the subject in Art of Now: A Mathematician’s Guide to Beauty (Tuesday,
Radio 4, 11.30am).
Equal As We Are (Monday to Friday, Radio 4, 1.45pm), the fascinating 10-part series exploring the cultural history of relationships, presented by the playwright Laura Wade, continues this week. On Wednesday the subject is Jilly Cooper’s most famous novel,
Riders, divisive and much-discussed but still probably best known for its romping combination of sex scenes and showjumping drama.
Some of the funniest radio comedy is often the least contrived, so I like the sound of Lucy and Gina’s Special
Relationship (Thursday, Radio 4, 11.00pm). Lucy Porter and Gina Yashere are both comedians and friends with a lot in common, but they’re reconnecting after losing touch with one another due to their different lives.
And why do we continue to seek out new recordings of well-known pieces of classical music? In the year of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, we’re certain to hear new performances of pieces that have been loved for centuries, but what makes us keep coming back for more? In The Listening Service (Friday, Radio 3, 4.30pm), Tom Service turns his ever-questioning gaze to the subject.
Read The Week in Radio by Charlotte Runcie every Wednesday in
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