...AND THE BEST RADIO
SUNDAY
SUNDAY FEATURE: GREAT SCOTT RADIO 3, 6.45PM
Sir Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe and Rob Roy, was a literary star in the 19th Century who rebranded Scotland and helped start the country’s tourist industry. But he fell out of favour and is now reviled for his twee, romanticised evocation of his native land. In the 250th anniversary year of Scott’s birth, Allan Little reassesses his literary contribution.
SYD
RADIO 4, 7.15PM
Comedian Arthur Smith’s father signed up for the Army aged 17, fought at El Alamein and was then captured and imprisoned in Colditz. This hit Edinburgh Festival show (touring later this summer) is an affectionate homage to his dad, a man who went on to patrolling the beat for the Metropolitan Police but was, having been a PoW, loath to arrest anyone and deprive them of their liberty.
MONDAY
NEW STORYTELLERS RADIO 4, 1.45PM
Parson’s Pleasure, a male-only nudist bathing oasis for more than 400 years, has been a centre of Christianity for the Victorians, a mecca for sunbathers between the wars and a sanctuary for gay men until 1992. Cultural historian
George Townsend explores the river island near Oxford and meets some of its former users.
DRAMA: PASSENGER LIST RADIO 4, 2.15PM, MON-SAT
Series two of John Scott Dryden’s podcast thriller investigating the mystery of Flight 702, which crashed in the North Atlantic. In part one of six, student Kaitlin is desperately searching for the truth but disappears after getting a call from one of the passengers – her twin brother. The cast includes Ben Daniels as a dodgy aviation lawyer and Broadway star
Patti LuPone.
TUESDAY
THE DOCUMENTARY: A TALE OF TWO TOKYOS WORLD SERVICE, 9.05AM & 8.05PM
If you remember Welshman Lynn Davies longjumping to gold-medal glory in Tokyo, catch this, a reflection on the Olympics in 1964, which galvanised a post-war Japan, and the Games that have just begun. But amid the pandemic, has the costly sportsfest had its day?
THE JAZZ SHOW WITH JAMIE CULLUM: LOUIS ARMSTRONG SPECIAL RADIO 2, 9PM
On the occasion of the 120th anniversary of Armstrong’s birth, Cullum presents a tribute to jazz legend Satchmo (above), speaking to trumpeters who have been inspired by him and playing classics from the archives of a man whose influence stretched from New Orleans and across the globe.
FRIDAY
PAUL IS DEAD RADIO 4 EXTRA, 2.30PM
In 1969 a US chat show received a call claiming that Paul McCartney had been killed in a road accident and replaced by a lookalike. Playing Beatles tracks backwards revealed all, added subsequent theorists. This documentary talks to the man who took the phone call and the hoaxers, and plays rarer versions of Beatles songs.