The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
On My Wavelength
Anew series of Soul Music (Saturday, Radio 4, 10.30am) begins today, sharing memories of Prince’s much-loved Purple Rain. Contributors include musicians on the recording and others for whom the song has a special meaning, such as comedian Sindhu Vee. Alan Bennett fans won’t want to miss Cocktail Sticks (Saturday, Radio 4, 3pm), an adaptation of the National Theatre’s production of this short play about his relationship with his parents, starring Alex Jennings and Bennett himself. Plus, there’s top opera in the Met’s new “rust belt” Lucia di Lammermoor on Opera on 3 (Saturday, Radio 3, 6.30pm), with soprano Nadine Sierra as Donizetti’s tragic heroine.
The most evocative drama of the week is John Retallack’s adaptation of Italian novelist Sandro Veronese’s acclaimed
2019 novel The Hummingbird (Sunday, Radio 3, 7.30pm).
It’s the fragmented life story of ophthalmologist Marco Carerra (Simon Lenagan), who juggles an unhappy wife, an impossible unrequited love and a host of other life challenges – taking glancing looks at key events to build up a poetic and impressionistic portrait of a chaotic but full life.
A week of eco-focused activity launches on Radio 2 Goes Green (Monday, Radio 2, from 6.30am), encouraging listeners to make greener choices. Zoe Ball (6.30am) gets things rolling, meeting a Bristol family for whom 2022 is “Waste Nothing” year. The theme continues with Jeremy Vine (noon) focusing on home energy efficiency, followed by Sara Cox (5pm) who interviews a BBC Young Reporter from Kent who has cleared 60 tons of litter from beaches, and is aiming for 100.
Last month Sonia Boyce, the first black woman to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale, won the festival’s Golden Lion prize for her multimedia piece Feeling Her Way. In a fascinating edition of In the Studio (Tuesday, World Service, 11.30am and 11.30pm), arts reporter Anna Bailey follows Boyce in the run-up to the festival as she prepared to fill the rooms of the British Pavilion with a chorus of black female voices in an exuberant soundscape.
In Heresy (Wednesday, Radio 4, 6.30pm) Victoria Coren Mitchell returns, after a three-year hiatus, with the show that actively embraces saying the unsayable. Artist Grayson Perry and comedians David Baddiel and Desiree Burch join Coren Mitchell to debate – in as humorous a manner as they dare – Qatar’s new brand ambassador David Beckham and trigger warnings.
A delightful short documentary The Dancer and Her Shoe Maker (Thursday, Radio 4, 11.30am) explores the unique relationship between a ballet dancer and her pointe shoes – and the craft that goes into making them. We dive into the sonic world of the symbiotic relationship between Bob Martin, a pointe shoe maker and consultant, and Francesca Hayward, a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet. A pleasure from beginning to end.
Ian McMillan hosts a special edition of The Verb (Friday, Radio 3, 10pm) linking poetry past and present in an historic setting. Recorded in the Queen’s Library at Windsor Castle for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, Poet Laureate Simon Armitage performs a new work written for the occasion, and he’ll also be leafing through some poetic gems from the Queen’s collection – including rare, annotated editions donated by the previous poets laureate. McMillan also talks to a recent winner of the Queen’s Medal for Poetry.