The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
On My Wavelength
A90-minute treat for jazzlovers in Saturday’s J to Z (Radio 3, 5pm) as Julian Joseph celebrates the centenary of the birth of one of 20th-century jazz’s most influential musiciancomposers, Charles Mingus. He’s joined by saxophonist Charles McPherson, long-time friend and collaborator of Mingus, who assesses the great man’s legacy and plays a selection of tracks from throughout his career. Greg James, too, is in celebratory mood in Archive on 4: 50 Years Without a Clue (Radio 4, 8pm), spending a joyful hour unearthing memorable clips from five decades of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue.
In The Le Fanu Ballads (Sunday, Radio 4, 3pm), Neil Brand dips into the work of 19th-century Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu. He takes four of the gothic-thriller writer’s stories and twists them into a spine-chilling tale of a Dublin nightclub, its loquacious MC (Paul Chahidi) and a mysterious clairvoyant (Ruth Everett) who surprises customers with forecasts of their grisly fates. Some of the Irish accents are a tad hokey, otherwise it’s a winner.
A new run of The Untold (Monday, Radio 4, 11am) begins in Ukraine, tracking the rescue of orphans trapped in a shelter since their teachers were killed trying to get provisions. Amid fears that orphans are being illegally moved across borders by criminal gangs, the government has put two US charities in charge of the rescue and safety of the country’s
100,000 orphans. But how does that work in practice? Journalist Sue Mitchell reports.
In One Direction (Tuesday, Radio 4, 9.30am) cartographer Jerry Brotton explores the four cardinal points of the compass.
North, South, East and West may be defined by the physical realities of our planet’s magnetic poles and the rising and setting of the sun, says Brotton, but that doesn’t fully explain how we think about direction. Beginning with North, he asks why it now sits at the top of most maps, as it hasn’t always been that way.
A special In Concert (Wednesday, Radio 3, 7.30pm) recorded in March features a selection of Radio 3’s current crop of New Generation Artists performing at Snape Maltings. The Van Kuijk Quartet open with Dvořák’s haunting String Quartet No 9 before being joined by pianist Tom Borrow and violinist Ionel Manciu for Chausson’s Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet. To conclude there’s another collaboration, with mezzo Ema Nikolovska and pianist Kunal Lahiry joining the Van Kuijk for Chausson’s Chanson perpétuelle.
McLevy in the New World (Thursday, Radio 4, 2.15pm) sees the venerable Brian Cox return to radio, reprising his role as the much-loved mid-19th century detective, James McLevy. We last clapped ears on McLevy in 2016, on a ship bound for America with his resourceful lover Jean Brash (Siobhan Redmond). We catch up with them in at a loose end in Gold Rush-era San Francisco, surviving thanks to Jean’s poker-playing skills. Soon enough, McLevy gets a chance to put his own skill set to good use.
After a short break Andy Zaltzman is back with The News Quiz (Friday, Radio 4, 6.30pm), the one show on radio guaranteed to provoke a laugh, no matter how bleak the news. Since taking over as host, Zaltzman has completely refreshed this show with his unique blend of surreal, absurd, razor-sharp observation.
His guests todays are Hugo Rifkind, Felicity Ward, Daliso Chaponda and Eleanor Tiernan.