The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
CHARLOTTE RUNCIE
RADIO CRITIC
This week’s radio combines thoughtful lockdown responses with bold adventures through history. Though cinemas are closed, the ability to enjoy films at home is still very precious. But which films to choose? In Sound of Cinema (Saturday, Radio 3, 3.00pm), Matthew Sweet considers the best films and best film music for these times.
In The Miners’ Way (Sunday, Radio 4, 4.30pm), Irish poet Jane Clarke embarks on a poetic exploration of a long-distance path through three valleys in County Wicklow, across six disused mine sites. Clarke meets historians, ex-miners and farmers, hearing what the mining industry was like before it ended there in 1957, and shares her own poems inspired by the landscape and its stories.
The long-term economic effects of the lockdown won’t be known for a while, but in A Cure at What Cost? (Sunday, Radio 4, 8.00pm), science journalist Tom Chivers examines all of the factors that will play a part, including the length of lockdown, the complexities of how we emerge from it, the strategies that will help us and those which could do more harm than good.
As it’s been much more difficult to make new radio drama during lockdown, the producers of The Archers (Monday to Friday, Radio 4, 2.00pm and 7.00pm) are having to get creative with the Ambridge content they’re bringing us. And so, this week, there are no new episodes, and instead the BBC is broadcasting some classic episodes from the archives, focusing on climactic moments of marriage, death, and high drama.
In response to the lockdown, The Essay:
Let Me Take You There (Monday to Friday, Radio 3, 10.45pm) invites five writers to share their own special place of imagined escape, what it’s like and how it feels to be there. First up is Alan Hollinghurst, who has lived in London for 40 years, recalling the poplars of the Gloucestershire countryside where he grew up. Other writers taking part are Inua Ellams, Tessa Hadley, Alice Oswald and Tahmima Anam.
Louis Theroux debuts an interview series in which he takes advantage of lockdown to pin down some of the high profile people he’s been keen to talk to. In Grounded with Louis Theroux (Wednesday, Radio 4, 8.00pm), the first guest is Theroux’s long-term professional rival, the writer and documentarymaker Jon Ronson, to be followed by Boy George next week.
While we’re in the mood for contemplation of restriction and escape, in Five Knots (Thursday, Radio 4, 11.30am) Timandra Harkness explores the history of knots, from where and when humans first tied things together, to the work of forensic knot experts who help police, explaining what a knot tells you about the person who tied it. And things get even knottier as Harkness explores mathematical knot theory, the culture of hair braiding, and knots in mountaineering.
And, as part of Radio 4’s plan to re-broadcast classic programmes during lockdown, all this week and beyond, there’s another chance to hear A History of the World in 100 Objects (Monday to Friday, Radio 4, 1.45pm). These programmes were wonderful and illuminating first time around, so it’s a treat to be able to enjoy them again. This week focuses on ancient civilisations, and objects from the earliest known human attempts to construct their worlds and express themselves.
Read The Week in Radio by Charlotte Runcie every Wednesday in
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