The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
On My Wavelength
Could deforestation lead to more catastrophic pandemics? The Documentary: Forest Fear (Saturday, BBC World Service, 12.06pm) considers that sobering possibility, as animal hosts increasingly come into contact with humans when their habitats are destroyed. Environmental journalist Lucy Jordan travels to the heart of the Amazon rainforest to find out more about what happens when humans and wild animals interact, and why and how potential zoonotic disease can break out.
Appropriately for the long, cold month of January, in Sunday Feature: New Generation Thinkers: Breaking the Ice (Sunday, Radio 3, 7.15pm) Seán Williams offers a cultural, artistic and musical history of lake skating, and the thrill of skating on naturally formed ice. His journey encompasses 16th-century Flanders, European Romanticism and ice discos, discussing how Skaters’ Meadow in Cambridge was a place to see and be seen, and the joy of skating symbolising freedom and fun as well as danger.
All this week on The Essay: Herb (Monday to Friday, Radio 3, 10.45pm), writer Colin Grant explores the changing public perception of cannabis, amid increasing pressure for more acceptance of its medical uses. He begins by giving some background to his own history with the drug, starting with the story of his father, who was a dealer of cannabis in Luton in order to fund his son’s private school education.
Helena Merriman’s six-part series Room 5 (Tuesday, Radio 4, 9am) focuses on a moment that will happen to many of us: in some anonymous NHS room, a doctor will give a diagnosis that will change our lives. Sometimes a diagnosis can be a relief; at other times it can be a horrible shock. With experimental sound design and music, this first episode is the story of Bex, a university student who began experiencing seizures and hallucinations, with doctors struggling to diagnose her as she deteriorated before their eyes.
Oti Mabuse, twice winning professional on Strictly Come Dancing, presents Oti Mabuse’s Dancing Legends (Wednesday, Radio 4, 11.30am), a five-part series inviting her pro peers from the world of dance to reflect on the finest dancers that came before them. In the first episode she meets Matthew Bourne, renowned choreographer, to discuss the power and lasting influence of the great Fred Astaire. Together, Bourne and Mabuse explore the story of Astaire’s life and what made him such a memorable dancer, and Mabuse has a tutorial in tap dancing from Claire Miller.
The horrific murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa ignited a fresh conversation about the dangers for women of walking alone, and the perception of city streets by night as male spaces. Night Watch (Thursday, Radio 4, 11.30am) is a collection of stories of street harassment that women have experienced, collated by producer Caitlin Smith, including attempts women make to keep themselves and their friends safe, and a new poem by Hollie McNish.
And Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode present Screenshot (Friday, Radio 4, 11.15pm), which this week is a response to the cinema release of Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, exploring the world of film noir. Del Toro’s is his own take on Edmund Goulding’s 1947 film set at a seedy travelling carnival. The pair trace connections across the genre and explore how it has changed over the decades.