The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
On My Wavelength
Ialways listen to You’re Dead to Me (today, Radio 4, 10am) when I need something fizzy and entertaining, and yet I always come away having learned something new. In that respect, it’s a perfect podcast, and a treat to catch it in the wild when it’s broadcast on Radio 4. Today’s edition is about the history of kung fu, from ancient China to the present, with presenter Greg Jenner joined by Dr Leon Rocha and comedian Phil Wang.
In Sunday Feature: Classical Africa (Sunday, Radio 3, 6.45pm), South African double bassist
Leon Bosch seeks to discover a distinct African form of “Western classical” music. Tracing a diverse range of influences, Bosch delves into the intersections of African and European musical traditions.
To what extent is the radical right-wing influencing life and politics across western Europe? One particular feature of the current situation, as discussed in The Kids Are Alt Right (Monday to Friday, Radio 4, 1.45pm), a five-part series by Professor James Tilley, is the fact that radical right-wing parties appear to appeal to young people more than they do to older voters. The series explores the fascinating complexities of the interaction between our age and how we vote.
For The Documentary: Ending Homelessness the Finnish Way (Tuesday, World Service, 3pm), Erika Benke is exploring the Finnish model for solving homelessness, which seems very simple: just give homeless people a house. It’s a controversial idea, but has had lasting success in the country and inspired similar pilot projects around the world. But it requires significant state support and an abundance of affordable housing. Can it really work elsewhere?
Say you’re a major international corporation, or a famous and influential political figure, and suddenly you find yourself thrown into the middle of a PR crisis.
Who ya gonna call? Well, the crisis managers and spin doctors, of course. In When It Hits the
Fan (Wednesday, Radio 4, 9pm), David Yelland and Simon Lewis analyse the week in PR disasters, going behind the scenes to discover how the crisis professionals work to manage the fallout. Are they skilled communicators and strategists, or merely media manipulators? You’ll have to make up your own mind on that one.
Book of the Week: The Country of the Blind (Mon-Fri, Radio 4FM, 9.45am) is Andrew Leland’s memoir about losing his sight, due to the inherited eye condition retinitis pigmentosa. Although he had full vision as a child, when he was a teenager his sight began to deteriorate, and now his vision resembles looking through a narrow tube. At some point soon, he will lose functional sight, knowledge that affects his entire life, especially his relationships with his wife and son. Here, he explores these personal implications, as well as the wider culture of blindness, with vivid life and humour.
And Rare Earth (Friday, Radio 4, 12.04pm) is an environmental series, presented by journalist Tom Heap and physicist Helen Czerski, seeking to explore a set of specific challenges to our planet. Encouragingly, it’s not simply made up of stark warnings: it’s infused with hope, with a mission to treasure the natural world around us. The first episode looks at rewilding, the competing demands on land, and whether humans should micro-manage species and habitats.