The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
On My Wavelength
There’s a medical seam running through this week’s radio, beginning with The Evidence (tonight, World Service, 7.06pm), which has been recorded with a live studio audience at the Wellcome Collection in London. Presenter Claudia Hammond speaks to a panel of international doctors and researchers to explore whether allergies are on the increase and what could be done to treat and prevent them.
Flora Thompson’s novels about rural life in the late 19th century have been adapted for Radio 4 drama, in Lark Rise to Ambridge (Sunday, Radio 4, 3pm), performed by none other than those experts in rural life, the characters from The Archers. Lark Rise is, as it happens, only about 30 miles from Ambridge, and the community there can be a place of warmth and friendship for the bookish Laura Timmins, but it can also be a claustrophobic existence. It’s the mash-up that Radio 4 listeners will either be dazzled or baffled by, but either way it should be fun to hear Tracy and Chelsea Horrobin (Susie Riddell and Madeleine Leslay), Jazzer McCreary (Ryan Kelly) and Neil Carter (Brian Hewlett) exploring pastures new(ish).
Beauty, female creativity, and the history of cosmetics are the focus of Book of the Week: How to Be a Renaissance Woman (Monday to Friday, Radio 4FM, 9.45am), Jill Burke’s history of portraiture and make-up that becomes an alternative history of the Renaissance. Expect a range of wonderful “solutions” to potential problems with one’s appearance, and remedies for everything from bad breath to stretch marks and podgy arms, along with a touch of rebellion against male chauvinism.
The award-winning comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean sees the funny side of health in Best Medicine (Tuesday, Radio 4, 6.30pm), a new series in which she invites guests to make a case for what they believe is “the best medicine”, whether that’s obscure historical innovations, futuristic technology, or humble everyday remedies. In the first episode, medical historian Dr Lindsey Fitzharris, comedian Darren Harriott, biomedical engineer Professor Eleanor Stride and brain surgeon Professor Mark Wilson compare medical notes.
Marking National Poetry Day, a special edition of Free Thinking (Wednesday, Radio 3, 10pm) in which Matthew Sweet focuses on the theme of finding refuge. He hears from the academic Dr Jesús Sanjurjo about refugees from Spain who arrived in Somers Town in Camden in 1823, and speaks to Sierra Leonean poet, artist and film-maker JulianKnxx about how loss and belonging are explored in a new installation at the Barbican.
Saxophonist Jess Gillam takes the stage for Radio 3 in Concert (Thursday, Radio 3, 7.30pm), live from the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham. Conductor Mark Wigglesworth presents the UK premiere of Anna Clyne’s saxophone concerto, Glasslands, performed by Gillam and written specially for her. In it, the banshee of Irish folklore wanders abroad.
And What’s Funny About (Friday, Radio 4, 11.30am) is always a joyous listen, providing insight to how famous TV comedy shows were developed, commissioned and made. This week’s episode focuses on A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie’s breakout sketch show. The pair are in the studio to relate how it all happened – before they each went on to become stratospherically famous, both together and each in their own right.