THIS WEEK’S RADIO PICKS
SUNDAY LOCKDOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL: LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, RADIO 3, 9PM
The Lockdown Theatre Festival, taking place across Radio 3 and Radio 4 this weekend, comprises productions suddenly cut short by the lockdown and now recorded using video conferencing and social distancing. Love, Love, Love, by Mike Bartlett – author of TV’s Doctor Foster – focuses on a retired couple looking back over 40 years of their lives. THE PEOPLE’S SONGS RADIO 2, 9PM
It was in 1972 on Top Of The Pops that David Bowie (below with Mick Ronson) premiered the single Starman and shocked viewers with his androgynous Ziggy Stardust alter ego. Stuart Maconie looks at the fallout from that gamechanging cultural moment. TUESDAY ART OF NOW: HEARING ARCHITECTURE RADIO 4, 11.30AM
When American architect Chris Downey suddenly lost his sight it might have been the end of his working life. But after rehabilitation he has become a multi-sensory designer of interiors and urban space. He explains his new approach to architecture, paying attention to sound and touch, air flow and temperature. Buildings that take such things into consideration, he says, can make us healthier and happier. WEDNESDAY BEING DAVID SEDARIS RADIO 4 EXTRA, 11AM
The first of three episodes in which the American bestselling writer, satirist and broadcaster talks about his work to Emma Freud. His droll stories have included his stint as a Christmas elf in Macy’s department store in New York, his complicated family and his obsession with his daily step count. FRIDAY THE NEW TECH COLD WAR RADIO 4, 11AM
Gordon Corera asks if we have already lost the tech war against China in such areas as telecoms, quantum computing and artificial intelligence, and the dangers of our reliance on that country’s advanced technology. SATURDAY OPERA ON 3: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, RADIO 3, 6.30PM
A fabulous production of Benjamin Britten’s opera, recorded at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2017 – where in 1960 the adaptation was premiered. Countertenor Iestyn Davies is Oberon and soprano Sophie Bevan plays Tytania; Ryan Wigglesworth conducts. Mark Cook