Has The Archers cheated listeners with George Grundy reveal?
The identity of the Ambridge resident who attacked George Grundy came as a shock to most fans.
So we now know who lamped poor George Grundy (played by Angus Stobie) with a bottle of well-oaked Chardonnay on New Year’s Eve as he walked to make amends with his mother, Emma (Emerald O'Hanrahan). But I doubt whether any Ambridge addict who placed a bet on whodunnit is now sitting pretty after their hunch paid off. None of the main suspects who were in the frame turned out to be guilty – from one of Marky’s henchmen getting even for George grassing him up in prison to the improbable notion it was George’s younger half-sister Keira, fed up with the disruption he caused in the family. Add in the long list of others with potential motives, including Brad (Taylor Uttley), Jazzer (Ryan Kelly), Fallon (Joanna Van Kampen), Harrison (James Cartwright), Mick (Martin Barrass), Chris (Wilf Scolding), Lilian (Sunny Ormonde), Brian (Charles Collingwood) and Amber’s dad, and the scripts were a masterclass in misdirection. Yet when it was revealed in last Friday’s episode that it was Brian’s beloved son Ruairi (Arthur Hughes) who had done the dastardly deed, listeners couldn’t help but be surprised. Not that there’s no logic behind Ruairi being the attacker. He is the half-brother of Alice (Hollie Chapman) after all, and she almost went to prison after George placed her – blind drunk – at the wheel of her car, following the crash back in 2024 that saw Mick, Joy (Jackie Lye) and Fallon career off the road and into the icy waters of the Am. [facebook-embed url="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1567851714432358" captioned="true" /] Fallon lost her unborn child after the crash and the guilt almost overwhelmed the hoodwinked Alice, who couldn’t remember what happened that fateful night, and saw her turning back to her old, destructive friend, the bottle. So it’s feasible that Ruairi has harboured a long-simmering grudge against George and that on a drunken New Year’s Eve in the Bull at which he saw George square up to his elderly father Brian, whose angina seems to strike whenever he gets het up or over-exerts himself, he would grab one of the bottles of fancy wine that he hadn’t already polished off and in a mist of alcoholic rage, followed George out of the pub, saw him talking to the saintly Alice, and further incensed stalked behind him on the bridal path and whacked him. It’s admittedly a neat bit of plotting that the rash actions of a volatile, impetuous young man prove to be the rough justice handed out to another volatile, impetuous young man whose rash actions in panicking and putting Alice in the frame for the crash – when he could have easily explained what happened and used his heroism in saving Mick, Joy and Fallon as mitigating evidence – started all the trouble and upheaval in the village in the first place. [caption id="attachment_2036520" align="alignnone" width="2298"][image id="2036520" size="full" title="Archers" alt="Promotional images of Hollie Chapman as Alice Carter and Angus Stobie as George Grundy in The Archers put side by side" classes=""] Hollie Chapman as Alice Carter and Angus Stobie as George Grundy in The Archers.[/caption] However, the problem I have is that the writers appear to have ignored one of the golden rules of crime writing, namely that the reader (or listener in this case) should always be able to work out whodunnit, or as American critic, editor and bestselling author SS Van Dine put it in his 1928 “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories” – the reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described. Since the New Year’s Eve episode I don’t think listeners have had many clues plainly stated that could lay the blame at Ruairi’s door. Yes, we heard him reacting angrily when a contrite George visited the Aldridges in an attempt to apologise for what he did to Alice and move on with his life. Only the most perceptive listeners would think he lost his cool because the prospect of George being accepted as a decent albeit troubled human being by his family, would mean that his violence against him was even more heinous. It just seemed like volatile, entitled Ruairi acting out again. [highlight-box attachment="2388838"]Add Radio Times as a Preferred Source on Google Keep up to date on what’s worth watching with your favourite entertainment news from Radio Times – see more of our exclusive news and interviews featured prominently in Top Stories when using Google. [/highlight-box] And one would have to have an eidetic memory to have noticed that Ruairi, Kate and Adam sunk their freebie bottle of swanky vino early in the evening on NYE, thus making Ruairi drunk and giving him a ready-made weapon in the form of an empty bottle with a fancy label. Writer and director Dave Payne, who came up with the idea for the whole storyline, told The Archers Podcast that when he first took it to the editor he was told to come up with a list of suspects and, walking away, instantly had a list of 20 possibles. It feels as if we were presented with the 19 others as potential suspects, but the real one was hidden from view. Hiding behind his father again, right up to the last. Read more: The Archers confirmed for live 75th anniversary tour as fans can celebrate beloved radio drama Bridge Farm to be brought to life at new RHS show to celebrate The Archers' 75th anniversary However, having said all that, placing Ruairi in the frame has served up the prospect of a juicy story in which Brian tries to protect the son-who-can do-no-wrong, to the extent of facing prison time, while George could use his recording of Brian confessing to the crime to leverage an easier ride for himself in a village that has been unforgiving in its approach to rehabilitation for ex-cons who have done their time. Or will Ruairi come clean and be sent to jail, and come out a hardened criminal with even more of a grudge against George? More for Ambridge fans to obsess over and we have to be at least thankful that it wasn’t a Murder on the Orient-Express scenario, with the whole village having had a hand in meting out rough justice to George. Read our interviews with George, Ruairi, Alice, Brian and Lilian – or the actors who play them – in tomorrow's edition of Radio Times – subscribe here. Check out more of our Audio coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Vote now for the Radio Times Readers' Drama Award at the BBC Audio Drama Awards
Radio Times is launching its own audio drama Award, and we want you to choose the winner!
Radio is famously the “theatre of the mind” and that’s most apparent in audio drama, where listeners can be transported from a cosy village pub to the far reaches of the galaxy, all from the comfort of their bed, bath or beyond. Alison Hindell, commissioning editor for drama and fiction at Radio 4, says the best audio drama “enlightens and illuminates, leading the listener into lives they will never lead and to places they may never go. Every listener will experience an entirely unique production, and be touched in different, individual ways, because for each of us it all happens within our own imaginations.” To celebrate this transportive genre, we have established our own Radio Times Readers’ Drama Award, for dramas broadcast or released between 1 October 2024 and 31 October 2025, and now invite you to vote for your favourite from a 30-strong shortlist (see below along with clips to jog your memory) drawn up by a panel of our expert critics. They range from gritty one-man shows to star-laden adaptations of literary classics and from meditative pieces on loss to heart-thumping thrillers. Chris Jones, senior director of production for Europe at Audible, highlights the three elements that comprise good dramas: “First, writing – a script designed to be heard, where every line of dialogue, every breath, sound effect or moment of silence earns its place to reveal character or carry action. "Then, casting – the right actor doesn’t just read lines, they embody the character. Lastly, sound design – treating the acoustics of an environment or the footsteps of a character not as background, but as storytelling itself.” Bear these in mind when you cast your vote. The vote closes at 11:59pm on Friday 20 February and the winner will be announced at the BBC Audio Drama Awards ceremony on Sunday 1 March and revealed in the issue of Radio Times on sale Tuesday 3 March. The vote follows below - make sure you choose carefully as you only have one vote. The shortlist is below. View Riddle on the source website Radio Times Readers’ Drama Award shortlist Gatsby in Harlem – Radio 3 Ncuti Gatwa, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Malachi Kirby star in Roy Williams’s re-imagining of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic on the streets of Harlem. Listen now Central Intelligence – Radio 4 Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris and Johnny Flynn return in the second series of the drama about the CIA. Listen now Moorgate – Radio 4 Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran’s retelling of the 1975 Moorgate Tube disaster, in which Marks’s father died. Listen now One Hundred and Fifty Days – Radio 4 A posthumous play from dramatist Oliver Emanuel, comprising his unfinished last audio drama and his writing about his brain cancer. Listen now The Fever – Radio 4 Cate Blanchett performs Wallace Shawn’s polemic monologue about global trade, adapted from his play. Listen now Buzz: the Man and the Moon – Podcast John Lithgow stars as Buzz Aldrin in a series that delves into the Apollo 11 astronaut’s complex personality and issues. Listen now Star – Radio 3 Drama from Sarah Wooley about the making of the movie A Star Is Born, Judy Garland’s 1950s comeback bid. Listen now Breaking the Rules: O Is for Orson – Radio 4 A dramatisation of the events behind the making of Orson Welles’s masterpiece, Citizen Kane. Listen now When Alan Met Ray – Radio 4 Paul Whitehouse and Harry Enfield star in the story of the beginning of the Galton and Simpson writing partnership, famous for Hancock’s Half Hour and Steptoe and Son. Listen now Waiting for Waiting for Godot – Radio 4 Adrian Edmondson writes and stars in a play about a play disrupted by lockdown. Listen now The Film – Radio 4 Retelling the wartime role of Alfred Hitchcock in bringing the horrors of Bergen-Belsen to the wider world. Listen now An Inspector Calls on Moscow – Radio 4 Rory Kinnear stars as JB Priestley in a recounting of how his play An Inspector Calls came to be premiered in Soviet Russia. Listen now Secrets and Lies: Mona Best and the Beatles – Radio 4 A reimagining of the integral part Mona Best, Pete’s mum, played in the Beatles’ early years. Listen now High Cockalorum – Radio 4 Jeremy Dyson’s Bradford-based play about a young lad’s encounter with Hollywood royalty. With Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Monica Dolan. Listen now Samhain – Radio 4 Drama infused with storytelling and song, inspired by the myths and rituals surrounding the pagan festival of Samhain. Listen now Aldrich Kemp and the Rose of Pamir – Radio 4 The latest series of the spy thriller sees Clara Page and Aldrich Kemp on a hunt across the globe. Listen now Exemplar – Radio 4 The second series of the award-winning series about forensic audio analysts, starring Gina McKee. Listen now Murder in Aland – Radio 4 A Baltic noir in which a murder on a storm-lashed island draws a grieving investigator and a retired officer into a web of espionage, betrayal – and forbidden love. Listen now It Can’t Happen Here – Radio 4 Sinclair Lewis’s prescient 1936 satirical novel about the rise of an unlikely US president, adapted for radio by Mike Walker. Listen now Faith Healer – Radio 4 A radio adaptation of Brian Friel’s acclaimed stage play telling the story of a charismatic travelling healer, starring Aidan Gillen, Michelle Fairley and Daniel Mays. Listen now Up in Smoke – Podcast Adam Buxton and Mei Mac star in a “true crime podcast” about a fictional event, a house fire in a small village that supposedly left a teenager dead. Listen now Chicken Burger N Chips – Radio 4 An adaptation of Corey Bovell’s one-man play, a raw coming-of-age story about growing up in a changing south London. Listen now The Yafa Cherry Orchard – Radio 4 Hassan Abdulrazzak relocates Chekhov’s masterpiece to Palestine as an aristocratic family attempt to hang on to their estate during the country’s partition in 1948. Listen now The ABC Murders – Audible Peter Dinklage leads a starry cast as Hercule Poirot in Audible’s Agatha Christie dramatisation. Listen now Secrets and Lies: The Final Touch – Radio 4 Roy Williams’s story of warring brothers, born to West Indian parents and fostered to a white couple, trying to make it as professional footballers. Listen now King Lear – Radio 4 At the age of 88, Richard Wilson takes on Shakespeare’s great role for the first time. With Greta Scacchi, Tamsin Greig, Phoebe-Loveday Raymond, Toby Jones and David Tennant. Listen now Only One Word for Love – Radio 4 Jessica Raine and Rupert Evans star in Susie Dent and Peter Souter’s play about love, recovery and lexicography. Listen now When Maggie Met Larry – Radio 4 Frances Barber and Derek Jacobi star as Margaret Thatcher and Laurence Olivier in a reimagining of their meetings in which Larry taught Maggie how to project her voice. Listen now A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – Radio 4 Tanika Gupta’s adaptation of the late Marina Lewycka’s witty and tender novel about emigrating and immigration, sisterly rivalry and the lure of a green satin brassiere. Listen now Hersey’s Hiroshima – Radio 4 A dramatisation of John Hersey’s New Yorker account of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima, written after two weeks spent interviewing citizens in the city. Listen now The vote closes at 11:59pm on Friday 20th February and the winner will be announced at the BBC Audio Drama Awards ceremony on Sunday 1 March.
Vote now for the Radio Times Readers' Drama Award
Radio is famously the “theatre of the mind” and that’s most apparent in audio drama, where listeners can be transported from a cosy village pub to the far reaches of the galaxy, all from the comfort of their bed, bath or beyond. Alison Hindell, commissioning editor for drama and fiction at Radio 4, says the best audio drama “enlightens and illuminates, leading the listener into lives they will never lead and to places they may never go. Every listener will experience an entirely unique production, and be touched in different, individual ways, because for each of us it all happens within our own imaginations.” To celebrate this transportive genre, we have established our own Radio Times Readers’ Drama Award, for dramas broadcast or released between 1 October 2024 and 31 October 2025, and now invite you to vote for your favourite from a 30-strong shortlist (see below along with clips to jog your memory) drawn up by a panel of our expert critics. They range from gritty one-man shows to star-laden adaptations of literary classics and from meditative pieces on loss to heart-thumping thrillers. Chris Jones, senior director of production for Europe at Audible, highlights the three elements that comprise good dramas: “First, writing – a script designed to be heard, where every line of dialogue, every breath, sound effect or moment of silence earns its place to reveal character or carry action. "Then, casting – the right actor doesn’t just read lines, they embody the character. Lastly, sound design – treating the acoustics of an environment or the footsteps of a character not as background, but as storytelling itself.” Bear these in mind when you cast your vote. The vote closes at 11:59pm on Friday 20 February and the winner will be announced at the BBC Audio Drama Awards ceremony on Sunday 1 March and revealed in the issue of Radio Times on sale Tuesday 3 March. The vote follows below - make sure you choose carefully as you only have one vote. The shortlist is below. View Riddle on the source website Radio Times Readers’ Drama Award shortlist Gatsby in Harlem - Radio 3 Ncuti Gatwa, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Malachi Kirby star in Roy Williams’s re-imagining of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic on the streets of Harlem. Listen now Central Intelligence - Radio 4 Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris and Johnny Flynn return in the second series of the drama about the CIA. Listen now Moorgate - Radio 4 Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran’s retelling of the 1975 Moorgate Tube disaster, in which Marks’s father died. Listen now One Hundred and Fifty Days - Radio 4 A posthumous play from dramatist Oliver Emanuel, comprising his unfinished last audio drama and his writing about his brain cancer. Listen now The Fever - Radio 4 Cate Blanchett performs Wallace Shawn’s polemic monologue about global trade, adapted from his play. Listen now Buzz: the Man and the Moon - Podcast John Lithgow stars as Buzz Aldrin in a series that delves into the Apollo 11 astronaut’s complex personality and issues. Listen now Star - Radio 3 Drama from Sarah Wooley about the making of the movie A Star Is Born, Judy Garland’s 1950s comeback bid. Listen now Breaking the Rules: O Is for Orson - Radio 4 A dramatisation of the events behind the making of Orson Welles’s masterpiece, Citizen Kane. Listen now When Alan Met Ray - Radio 4 Paul Whitehouse and Harry Enfield star in the story of the beginning of the Galton and Simpson writing partnership, famous for Hancock’s Half Hour and Steptoe and Son. Listen now Waiting for Waiting for Godot - Radio 4 Adrian Edmondson writes and stars in a play about a play disrupted by lockdown. Listen now The Film - Radio 4 Retelling the wartime role of Alfred Hitchcock in bringing the horrors of Bergen-Belsen to the wider world. Listen now An Inspector Calls on Moscow - Radio 4 Rory Kinnear stars as JB Priestley in a recounting of how his play An Inspector Calls came to be premiered in Soviet Russia. Listen now Secrets and Lies: Mona Best and the Beatles - Radio 4 A reimagining of the integral part Mona Best, Pete’s mum, played in the Beatles’ early years. Listen now High Cockalorum - Radio 4 Jeremy Dyson’s Bradford-based play about a young lad’s encounter with Hollywood royalty. With Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Monica Dolan. Listen now Samhain - Radio 4 Drama infused with storytelling and song, inspired by the myths and rituals surrounding the pagan festival of Samhain. Listen now Aldrich Kemp and the Rose of Pamir - Radio 4 The latest series of the spy thriller sees Clara Page and Aldrich Kemp on a hunt across the globe. Listen now Exemplar - Radio 4 The second series of the award-winning series about forensic audio analysts, starring Gina McKee. Listen now Murder in Aland - Radio 4 A Baltic noir in which a murder on a storm-lashed island draws a grieving investigator and a retired officer into a web of espionage, betrayal – and forbidden love. Listen now It Can’t Happen Here - Radio 4 Sinclair Lewis’s prescient 1936 satirical novel about the rise of an unlikely US president, adapted for radio by Mike Walker. Listen now Faith Healer - Radio 4 A radio adaptation of Brian Friel’s acclaimed stage play telling the story of a charismatic travelling healer, starring Aidan Gillen, Michelle Fairley and Daniel Mays. Listen now Up in Smoke - Podcast Adam Buxton and Mei Mac star in a “true crime podcast” about a fictional event, a house fire in a small village that supposedly left a teenager dead. Listen now Chicken Burger N Chips - Radio 4 An adaptation of Corey Bovell’s one-man play, a raw coming-of-age story about growing up in a changing south London. Listen now The Yafa Cherry Orchard - Radio 4 Hassan Abdulrazzak relocates Chekhov’s masterpiece to Palestine as an aristocratic family attempt to hang on to their estate during the country’s partition in 1948. Listen now The ABC Murders - Audible Peter Dinklage leads a starry cast as Hercule Poirot in Audible’s Agatha Christie dramatisation. Listen now Secrets and Lies: The Final Touch - Radio 4 Roy Williams’s story of warring brothers, born to West Indian parents and fostered to a white couple, trying to make it as professional footballers. Listen now King Lear - Radio 4 At the age of 88, Richard Wilson takes on Shakespeare’s great role for the first time. With Greta Scacchi, Tamsin Greig, Phoebe-Loveday Raymond, Toby Jones and David Tennant. Listen now Only One Word for Love - Radio 4 Jessica Raine and Rupert Evans star in Susie Dent and Peter Souter’s play about love, recovery and lexicography. Listen now When Maggie Met Larry - Radio 4 Frances Barber and Derek Jacobi star as Margaret Thatcher and Laurence Olivier in a reimagining of their meetings in which Larry taught Maggie how to project her voice. Listen now A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Radio 4 Tanika Gupta’s adaptation of the late Marina Lewycka’s witty and tender novel about emigrating and immigration, sisterly rivalry and the lure of a green satin brassiere. Listen now Hersey’s Hiroshima - Radio 4 A dramatisation of John Hersey’s New Yorker account of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima, written after two weeks spent interviewing citizens in the city. Listen now The vote closes at 11:59pm on Friday 20th February and the winner will be announced at the BBC Audio Drama Awards ceremony on Sunday 1st March. For more recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Bridge Farm to be brought to life at new RHS show to celebrate The Archers' 75th anniversary
Designer Jo Thompson has created a garden for the inaugural RHS Badminton Flower Show.
As part of The Archers’ 75th anniversary celebrations, the show has teamed up with the Royal Horticultural Society and garden designer Jo Thompson to bring to life a location central to the drama for decades, Bridge Farm. Remarkably the farm went fully organic in 1984 and has been innovating regularly ever since, moving into organic milk production and running its own dairy. The Archers 75th Anniversary Garden at the new RHS Badminton Flower Show will look to reflect that commitment to organic farming and be a similarly pioneering, productive, sustainable, welcoming, family centred and optimistic space. Though it’s more recent Bridge Farm history that has inspired the overarching spirit of the garden – the sewage spill last year that caused havoc for the Archers’ business and had listeners across the land gagging at the sloshing sound effects. The plot is designed to be a hopeful front garden, lovingly rebuilt after the damage from the spill. That rebuilding will be reflected on air throughout the year, with references to the replanting of the Bridge Farm garden in the programme, some of which will then be on show at RHS Badminton. Jeremy Howe, editor of The Archers, says: “For the past 75 years [The Archers] has been reflecting rural life in the UK. The RHS garden will be a wonderful opportunity for fans to see Bridge Farm brought to life as never before – we can’t wait.” Thompson says: “I’ve been a long-time Archers fan, so creating a Bridge Farm garden to mark the programme’s 75th anniversary has been an absolute joy. The Archers world feels incredibly familiar to so many people, and everyone has their own idea of what Bridge Farm looks like – which has made it both exciting and a little daunting, in the best possible way. I can’t wait to see it come to life, with plenty of small details that will feel familiar to listeners.” Some of those details in the 12m by 18m feature garden, will include Bridge Farm’s visitor entrance and noticeboard with bunting and pots; orchard fruit trees growing within a wildflower meadow; a cheese making area; and a potting bench with branded Bridge Farm vegetable boxes. There will also be a wildlife pond. Speaking via video at the launch of the RHS Badminton Flower Show, Thompson has also teased, “there’s also a nod to goats!”, in reference to the burgeoning herd of goats at the farm. View oEmbed on the source website She adds: “It’s also really exciting to be bringing this garden to the new RHS Badminton Flower Show. Set within a working landscape, it feels like exactly the right place for this garden to be. It’s not a judged garden, it’s simply there for people to enjoy.” Whether any of the Archers cast will be there enjoying the garden is yet to be revealed, but we’d hope to be able to have a taste of Borsetshire Blue and perhaps bump into Eddie Grundy trying to get his ferrets involved somehow. RHS Badminton Flower Show will take place 8–12 July. It is one of the RHS’s new touring Shows – alongside RHS Sandringham Flower Show for 2026 — and the first RHS Flower Show to take place in the beautiful Badminton Estate set within the South Gloucestershire countryside. Visit rhs.org.uk to purchase tickets and find out more about the show. Read more: The Archers confirmed for live 75th anniversary tour as fans can celebrate beloved radio drama The Archers stars David and William Troughton talk being father and son in iconic radio soap and in real-life You can listen to The Archers on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. Check out more of our Soaps coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what else is on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
BBC launches three new radio stations: "It's all about the audience"
The Radio 1 and Radio 3 spin-offs were approved while Radio 2 and 5 Sports Extra proposals were dismissed.
Twenty-three years since it last launched new national radio stations – BBC 6 Music, 1Xtra and Asian Network – the BBC has three starting on the same day. Previously available since November 2024 as live streams on BBC Sounds, Radio 1 Anthems, Radio 1 Dance (which has been on Sounds since 2020) and Radio 3 Unwind passed full competition assessments undertaken by the industry’s regulatory body Ofcom in July of this year and will start broadcasting on DAB+ on Friday 12 September. The three stations were part of wider proposals from the BBC, which also included the launch of a Radio 2 spin-off and the extension of the broadcasting hours of 5 Sports Extra. Both the Radio 2 spin-off and the extension of 5 Sports Extra were refused by Ofcom for the negative impact it was deemed they would have on commercial competitors. Sam Jackson, the controller of Radio 3, says that while he couldn’t be certain that Unwind would get approval, “I wasn't surprised, because I think we made a very, very strong case. I was very proud of the submission that we made, I felt we did a good job of arguing why this was distinctive and why it would be welcomed.” He points out that around 8,000 different pieces of music will be played on Unwind each year, from a broad repertoire but with a focus on recordings from the past 10 years – even of Baroque or classical pieces – and a mission to introduce new contemporary works, including from performers or composers who aren’t signed to record labels. Radio 1 controller Aled Haydn Jones is similarly robust in his defence of why we need two new stations: “It’s all about the audience. Ofcom has pointed out that the BBC needs to be doing better with young audiences. Having services for young people is a public service. Radio 1 is the biggest radio station for youth audiences in the UK, so having stations with the Radio 1 brand offering more is a pretty special thing.” Both men are keen to stress the differences between what their stations are offering and what can be found on commercial radio, with Haydn Jones claiming that Radio 1 plays more tracks in a week than its nearest commercial competitor does in a year, though he understands the commercial imperative that may account for that disparity. “Commercial stations are going to pick the songs that work best for their audience and play them as frequently as they want to play them. Whereas Radio 1 are about new artists coming through; over 50 per cent of Radio 1 tracks are within the last six weeks of release and Radio 1 Dance will do the same for UK dance DJs and producers coming through.” On the back of that he expects Radio 1 Dance to play around 3,000 unique tracks a year – in previous years on BBC Sounds it has averaged around 3,200. Sam Jackson takes an additional angle in his argument as to how Radio 3 Unwind is distinct from its competitors, saying: “If you compare what we do with Classic FM Calm where, I believe, there are no presenters, we have programmes that are presented by experts in their field.” He points to mid-morning presenter Sian Williams, who as well as being a respected broadcaster also has now an NHS practice in the field of trauma mental health, working with first responders. “She brings with her this other side to what she does. She's a broadcaster, she loves classical music but she's also trained professionally in mental health and wellbeing.” Continuing in the comparison with Classic FM Calm, he’s at pains to point out he’s highlighting differences not setting out to denigrate the competition: “This isn't meant to be a slight on what they do. They do what they do, they do that very well, but they have a kind of jukebox of music that is played with no presenters. There's an audience for that, there's an audience for a version of that on Spotify as well and I think anything that introduces more people to classical music is a good thing. “But I think we have to collectively have the confidence to say there's room for everybody and then let the audience decide what they want to listen to.” Haydn Jones also points to the breadth of presenting talent on Radio 1 Dance, which includes many big cheeses from the dance music world, from veterans like Pete Tong to newer names such as Charlie Hedges and the Blessed Madonna. Defending Radio 1 Anthems, which has a stated mission of serving up nostalgia for young people with a playlist of “bangers” from the Noughties to now, against accusations that it’s just like any number of commercial “decades” stations (Absolute 90s, Heart 80s, etc etc) is a bit tougher but Haydn Jones remains staunch. “The people who are presenting it are in some of the first presenting jobs, they've had out of university. We work with the Student Radio Association, where we had a panel of students playlist our shows, but also inform the Radio 1 team about songs they grew up with or remember. “But then also we add our curation with our knowledge of young people under 24 to find out which pockets of eras or genres we could delve a bit deeper into to give them ‘new to me’ music; things that they might not have discovered as they were growing up. For us, it's about the target audience and trying to ensure that they have a service that's dedicated to them.” He also points to the fact that getting Ofcom approval is recognition from the broadcast industry that there needs to be a focus on young audiences, and that the BBC is better placed than any to serve that audience. “It may not be where the easiest money is for our commercial friends, there are going to be more affluent age demographics that can pay bills. The fact that we are able to say we want to make sure that young audiences do not move away from DAB or from broadcast media and drift to streaming, I think is an important one. "So, I think the fact that we were successful with these is great. It won't be the full answer to our problems of ensuring that young audiences get what they need from broadcast media and BBC specifically but it's a brilliant step.” Asked whether there could be any more spin-offs from their stations, Sam Jackson is cautiously optimistic, saying: “Could there be a Radio 3 jazz station, a Radio 3 live music station? I love the idea of launching some new services that introduce Radio 3 to even more people so long as we keep the main network as healthy and as strong as ever.” Everything would, of course, be subject to the same lengthy Ofcom approvals process that the new stations have already gone through and it’s this that makes Haydn Jones more reluctant to say yes to more Radio 1 stations: “No one is asking for that right now. And I'm imagining at the pace these things take, if there ever is in the future, I'll be long gone by then.” Check out more of our Audio coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
'Lust is a great creative force': David Bowie reveals what drove him in exclusive interview
A new BBC podcast presented by Kate Moss features Bowie and stars like Elton John, Lady Gaga, Robbie Williams and Tilda Swinton reflecting on his life and legacy – plus, Radio Times has acquired exclusive extracts from interviews not used.
The chameleon figure of David Bowie is one of the most scrutinised personas in rock and pop, as commentators continue to attempt to capture his essence, like bottling lightning. The subject of innumerable books and documentaries, Bowie has also had a touring exhibition that ran, appropriately enough, for five years, and now the Victoria & Albert Museum in London is opening on 13 September a David Bowie Centre at its new Storehouse facility in the east of the city, to house a wealth of material from his archive, including notes on his uncompleted final project – a musical set in 18th-century London. Given all that, it seems unfeasible that there is anything new to learn about Mr David Jones from Brixton. Yet the BBC 6 Music podcast Music Uncovered, David Bowie: Changeling has unearthed a previously unheard interview the Starman gave to producer Des Shaw in 2001, in which he looks back at his progression from wannabe rock star to global superstar in the early 70s, often guffawing at the absurdity of it all with a cackle to rival Grayson Perry’s. In the interview, the Starman reflected on how he reacted to the fame and success he enjoyed in the early 70s, telling Shaw: "I think that throughout the 60s and most of the 70s I was driven by lust, as much as anything. It's a great creative force. That in turn is replaced by anger, when you ask where the money is. And then you get depression, and then you go to Berlin and write really moody instrumental stuff. It’s the triptych of the 70s. Lust, anger, moody." Bowie also reflected on the differing views on what he was doing – his fusing of music, fashion, performance and art – “I think people are split into two very separate attitudes. One was that I was just this charlatan and other that I was, sort of, this rock god. There was no halfway measure. And I was rather scared of both sides!” There’s no doubting on which side the contributors to the podcast fall, including its presenter Kate Moss, who became friends with Bowie through his deep interest in fashion. She recalls how their friendship began in the sweetest manner, “David, whose nickname for me by the way was Smasher, started phoning me on my birthday. I didn’t need any other presents after that.” They formed a close relationship, to the extent that when Bowie won a lifetime achievement award at the Brits in 2014, he asked his friend Kate to collect it for him. She agreed, on one condition, that she could wear something from his archive: “I wore the original Kansai Yamamoto bodysuit that David had worn for his [Ziggy Stardust] Rainbow Theatre gigs in 1972 - it fit me like a glove. It was a very surreal experience.” But then the surreal is part of the appeal of the Bowie legend and that otherworldliness is summed up rather well by an entertainer many would consider a down-to-earth chap, Robbie Williams: “He was basically a celestial, angelic member of a fraternity that exists outside of this planet and this ‘normie’ realm and there are very few that are sent to teach us, love us, show us the way, but he was one of them.” There are quotes in the podcast from so many stars – across music, film, art, fashion – who felt taught, loved and shown the way by Bowie that his legacy comes through loud and clear. Actor Tilda Swinton, for one, sees it clearly: “I think that what Bowie contributed and contributes still - and presumably always will contribute to the culture - is a model of flexibility, curiosity. [He] was clearly a deeply experimental spirit, so dedicated to not repeating himself and very healthily not invested in minding when other people didn’t like what he was up to.” That single focus on doing what he wanted proved influential worldwide. Fashionista Edward Enninful, the former editor-in-chief of British Vogue who grew up in Ghana, says, “I was always obsessed with music. I was always obsessed with imagery and I remember I would see images of David Bowie in magazines and I knew how he looked was something that was just mind-blowing for a kid from Africa. “That fact that he was not scared of his sexuality, the fact that there were so many young people in small towns who would go out in their ‘Bowieness’ - dressed like him, probably getting beat up every night in night clubs - but he was bold and he was unafraid and there was something that always sort of attracted me to him.” A pop star who made a similar splash with his look in the 1980s, Boy George saw that Bowie’s impact was more profound than perhaps widening what music fans were able to wear: “[He] was unique because he was so contradictory in every way. He wasn’t the archetypal homosexual – or bisexual, I don’t think he was even that — and we were part of a new breed of gay people who weren’t apologetic. We weren’t going to apologise for being gay.” Lady Gaga, who treads a similar path to Bowie in the way she encompasses the worlds of music, art, fashion and theatrics, and who pays a huge debt to his Aladdin Sane persona, makes the point that what people found so moving and profound always came wrapped in pure entertainment: “I always felt that his glamour was something he was using to express a message to people that was very healing. You can use the theatre of your imagination to entertain people beyond their wildest dreams.” Yet it’s left to a superstar peer of Bowie’s to sum up everything in the simplest of terms. Elton John, who amazingly said at the time that Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust gigs were “too camp” (though he did later recant and admit the influence Ziggy had on him), now states clearly, “His music speaks for itself - he’s a giant, a ground-breaking artist, songwriter, performer, actor - and his legacy will be there for ever.” Radio Times has exclusive access to some extracts from the interviews conducted for the podcast, but which didn’t make the final cut and which we can share with you now. First up we find that Bowie laugh well deployed in the 2001 interview as he reflected on the wealth of online commentary about his early work: “The great thing about the internet these days is that there are some brilliant sites that stoke the myth and mystique about the early period stuff. “It’s mostly wrong and kind of irrelevant, but what it does do is - they have got amazing photographs that they’ve collected over the years and what they do write actually prompts me and then I can remember from what they’ve said whether it’s mistake or reality. It doesn’t matter really because it all becomes nonsense anyway in the end [laughing]!” That willingness to laugh about what many think is an important and enduring legacy is something that actor Tilda Swinton will always hold dear as she revealed to Shaw: “I think probably the most important, the most resonant thing that I managed to kind of ‘download’ from David, knowing him as a person, was just glorying in how happy he was.” “He was certainly happy at the time of his life when I was fortunate enough to know him and I know - because he told me - there had been times in his life when he hadn’t been as happy, but by the time we met he was so incandescent with appreciation for life and that, I would say, is the most important base note of what he meant to me as a friend. Curious in every way and engaged and up for it - and full of mischief, vim and vigour - and all the good stuff.” Another close friend, and collaborator, who admits to being influenced by working with Bowie is his Berlin flat-mate, Iggy Pop. He told Shaw: “We were visually absolutely influenced and pressured by what was going on in Britain at the time - and David would come around in his gigantic lavender platform heels with a new hair colour every week and we’d all go off and drink tea [...] this led to all sorts of ramifications within the group and you can see on the back of [the 1973 Iggy Pop and the Stooges album co-produced by Bowie] Raw Power album - the kabuki make-up and my black lipstick - absolutely in reaction to what was happening. Very human reaction - 'The guys down the street are doing it then we’ll do that too'.” Ground-breaking 60s model Twiggy was also struck by the Bowie look: “Visually he was stunning. I do remember seeing him on Top of the Pops for the first time and just being bowled over by how he looked - no one in the pop scene had ever dressed like that. I’d seen [Marc] Bolan wear make-up but Bowie had the amazing costumes. I just thought he was extraordinary and to me, David’s music was so new and different. He was so bright and sweet and lovely. I just thought he was gorgeous and I loved his clothes and his music and bought his albums.” There’s one album that is more dear to her than any others, as she features in the lyric, “His name was always Buddy, And he'd shrug and ask to stay. She'd sigh like Twig the Wonder Kid, And turn her face away”. She told Shaw about the first time she heard it: “I was in my little kitchen and I heard [Drive-in Saturday] on the radio and thought I heard my name, so I went to my local record shop and told the guy behind the counter I thought I’d heard my name in a song and he said, it was the new David Bowie album, so I bought Aladdin Sane.” What these quotes and all the interviews used in the podcast make clear is that Bowie touched and guided the lives of so many people, from those he made music with to his fans and friends, that his legacy continues to burn bright in contemporary culture, however much he might think the myth-making is nonsense. Music Uncovered, David Bowie: Changeling is available now on BBC Sounds and broadcasts on 6 Music at 12 midnight Sunday 21 September. Check out more of our Audio coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Kavita Puri continues to give voice to the forgotten in her series bringing home the shocking reality of the war against Japan
The Second Map is on Radio 4 on 18 August at 11am, and is on BBC Sounds from 15 August. Kavita Puri’s work across award-winning series Three Pounds in My Pocket, Partition Voices and Three Million has illuminated forgotten or unheard stories from South Asia so, looking at the Second World War, it was inevitable she would land on the region’s “Forgotten War”. But she was shocked when she told people she was making The Second Map for Radio 4, to mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day. “I couldn’t believe how many people said, ‘What’s VJ Day? Did we fight the Japanese?’ People of all ages, and people who are well educated, some of whom may even have studied history at university.” Trying to understand the reasons behind this forgetting drives much of the series. Was it simply a matter of distance? As a schoolboy, Peter Knight had put up a map of Europe in the living room of his Bromley home, to chart the course of the war. Then after the invasion of British Malaya in 1941 and the opening of a new front in Asia, he put up “the second map”. In the series he describes it as a “far away war, not our war. We had bombs falling on our head. That was the here and now.” But are there more complex reasons? Was it the humiliation of part of the British Empire falling to the Japanese, whom many Brits saw as racially inferior? Or the ignominy of the Allied retreat from Burma (now Myanmar), with troops forced back across hundreds of miles of British territory, and the shame of when brutalised prisoners of war returned home looking, as Knight recalls, like “miserable specimens”? Another interviewee, Maurice Naylor, who’d been forced to work on the Burmese railway, stood at his parents’ door in 1945 as a 24-year-old weighing only five stone. There was almost a code of silence, with PoWs told not to upset their families with stories and the families told not to say anything to upset the men. Maurice didn’t say a word until he was 61. The moral ambiguity of empire certainly played a part. While the war in Europe was seen as a heroic fight against Nazism, in Asia it boiled down to the British Empire fending off Japan’s imperial ambitions for its colonies. And the fact that the 14th Army’s victories at Kohima and Imphal in India – which Puri describes as “some of the greatest battles we’ve ever fought” – are largely unknown has led some historians to say there’s “racialised forgetting”, as the 14th Army was formed of more than 75 per cent non-white troops. That moral ambiguity deepened with the war ending after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan has a reluctance to face its wartime past, but even in India it’s not easily commemorated, because a country that gained independence from Britain in 1947 doesn’t want to remember fighting alongside its colonial masters. It’s this knottiness that attracts Puri. “I’m always interested in complexity. History has become such a culture war football, but I don’t see it that way. History is not one thing and life is complex. I try to tell a small story through a person, and in that small story, I’m telling a bigger story of the history and the context. But it’s not definitive – no account of the war is ever going to be definitive.” There are plenty more remarkable small stories in The Second Map, including that of Ursula Graham Bower, the first woman to lead a combat unit in the Second World War, which Puri surmises as “straight from the movie screen”. Graham Bower was a budding anthropologist living with a Naga tribe in north-east India when the Japanese reached the border, but the phlegmatic 28-year-old soon took up arms, sending a cable to the Army: “Going forward to look for enemy. Kindly send guns and ammunition, soonest.” Puri has even unearthed never-before-heard testimony from a Japanese commander, Renya Mutaguchi, in the BBC archive. Yet it’s Yavar Abbas who personifies the series’ complexity. As a supporter of Indian independence, he agonised over whether to join the British fight. He eventually did and, assigned to a combat film unit, captured the aftermath of the atomic bombs, which he calls a crime against humanity. Recalling her conversation with Yavar, a dapper 104-year-old, Puri says, “He feels pained at the wars happening now. He fought a war in the name of freedom and he would say, ‘What was that for?’ I do think there’s a connection between the postwar order shifting at the moment and the generation of people who remember the horrors of war dying out.” A mark of her work is intimate conversations and each series has led to the next, thanks to what she’s told – the Indian immigrants in Three Pounds in my Pocket who would repeatedly talk about Partition; a chance remark in Partition Voices that led her to the Bengal Famine; talking to Peter Knight for Three Million (he’d served on a merchant ship taking grain to Bengal) led to the war in Burma. But The Second Map is marked by how much testimony is from the archive – which plays on Puri’s mind: “What makes me sad is that we are asking questions just when that generation is dying. We’ve lost so many stories already, I don’t have time to hang about. It’s a significant anniversary so I had to get this out quickly. “There was a moment when I was talking with Peter in his living room, and he takes me right back to the war, what was happening, how he felt. It’s so evocative. I couldn’t believe I was sitting there listening to this 98-year-old man telling me a story of the war. And I thought, how long can I do this for? Not much longer. I felt so lucky.”
The Archers star Lucy Speed reveals her pride in show embracing "important" new BBC initiative
"As someone who plays a farm manager, I really want our content and storylines to be as real as possible so that they honour the legacy of farming at the heart of the show."
On Thursday 7 August, BBC Farmwatch will see farmers taking over the airwaves, broadcasting for 24 hours nonstop across local radio, BBC Sounds and BBC News. As the initiative offering a comprehensive look at the daily realities of modern farming returns for a second year, with an emphasis on discussing some of the most pressing issues currently facing the industry. Stories to be featured include a 25-year-old farmer in Herefordshire who unexpectedly took over the family farm at 17 – leaving her in charge of a 200-acre site, with more than 1500 sheep and cattle; investigating the financial and emotional cost of farm fires in the East and West Midlands; meeting a fifth-generation wool farmer in County Durham; and 12 hours of outside broadcasting from a mixed farm in Somerset which makes its own gelato. There will also be a live broadcast from a combine harvester — with a so-called “Combine-Cam” — showing a field being harvested and allowing viewers to ask questions directly to farmers while they’re working. Harriet Cowan, the popular farmhand from Clarkson’s Farm, and Mike Wilkins, the fourth-generation Wiltshire farmer who starred in last year’s Great British Bake Off, will be presenting a live programme on every BBC Local Radio station across England. Yet, anything on BBC radio linked to farms and farming has to pay a visit to the nation’s most famous farmers in Ambridge, with The Archers on BBC Radio 4 featuring a special BBC Farmwatch storyline in which some of the Ambridge residents tune into their local radio station and are inspired by what they hear. Talking to Radio Times about the initiative, The Archers actor Lucy Speed said, “Farmwatch is a brilliant BBC Local Radio initiative that shines a light on the real stories behind British farming, and it’s something I’m proud to see reflected in The Archers.“ Her character, Stella Pryor, has been at the heart of a recent story that explores the conflict between environmental initiatives such as rewilding and farms’ food production capacity and profitability, with the harvest proving a pivotal plot point in the battle between the entrenched points of view of two old rivals, Justin Elliott and Brian Aldridge. So it’s unsurprising the view she takes of the importance of the public learning more about farming, “Our storylines are rooted in real agricultural life so it’s vital they are authentic. That’s why campaigns like Farmwatch are so important, not only because they celebrate the community spirit that defines rural Britain, but also reflect the everyday challenges our farmers face.” One of the Archers’ farming and countryside advisers, Fiona Mountain, adds to that, “’70 per cent of land in Britain is farmland, so farmers have a huge impact on all our lives, whether we live in the town or the countryside. Many people who listen to The Archers gain an impression of rural life and farming through the drama, which is why we do our utmost to convey farming and countryside issues authentically. Farmwatch builds on this by showcasing real life farmers who play such a crucial role in providing us with food and acting as custodians of the land.” Lucy Speed also links Farmwatch back to the rural soap and the work of Mountain and her fellow adviser Sybil Ruscoe in keeping everything in Ambridge as grounded in reality as possible, “As someone who plays a farm manager, I really want our content and storylines to be as real as possible so that they honour the legacy of farming at the heart of the show.” We’re not sure how Eddie Grundy’s madcap schemes fit into that, but if you tune into Farmwatch on 7 August and learn of a farmer building a “Ferret Wheel”, do let us know! Farmwatch will air on Thursday 7th August. Check out more of our Audio coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
From Alan Partridge's latest comedy offering to political insights and gripping true crime, these are the podcasts to get into this summer.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Whether you're in need of a laugh, looking to catch up on the latest political goings-on, or hoping to improve your general health and wellbeing, podcasts have become a big part of daily life for many of us. Here, Radio Times runs down the 30 best podcasts of summer 2025 – from the worlds of entertainment, current affairs, history, crime, wellness and sport. Best podcasts for summer 2025 Entertainment 1. Alan Partridge: Tales from the Oasthouse Some 34 years after Partridge hatched, fully-formed, as the unwittingly naff and desperately insecure golf sweater-wearing sports reporter on BBC Radio 4 comedy On the Hour, Steve Coogan’s excruciating creation shows no signs of getting tired. Male vanity is, as far as comedy is concerned, the gift that keep on giving but it is testament to Coogan’s precision and nimbleness as an actor that he also delivers moments in which your heart goes out to his petty, resentful and un-self-aware character. Gareth McLean Steve Coogan: "The only threat to Alan Partridge is reality" 2. Heavyweight In the first episode of Heavyweight, a show in which Jonathan Goldstein seeks to bring closure and/or reconciliation to his guests whose lives are marked by rifts and estrangements, the American-Canadian humourist tried to heal the decades-long division between his father and his uncle. Poignant, bittersweet, funny, it set the tone for this extraordinary, often tender, occasionally horrendously awkward, pod. GM 3. The Teen Commandments Radio 2 presenter Sara Cox and her longtime BFF Clare Hamilton discuss the often-messy reality of parenting teenagers as well as reminiscing about their own teenage misdemeanours in the 1980s. A refreshing and rare beast amid a sea of parenting pods focused on babies and young children, the result is, Cox says, “not an advice pod”. “We thoroughly encourage people to do the opposite of what we do with our parenting. People call it more of a parental panic group.” GM BBC Radio 2's Sara Cox reveals why she sometimes "struggles to maintain eye contact" with friends after new podcast 4. The Problematic Gaze Social historian Dr Lee Arnott and TV producer Dave Moor each week ask how a pop culture artefact from yesteryear measures up to today’s mores. Episodes range from the place of race in Til Death Us Do Part to how Friends treats trans characters, via The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Carry On Girls and Men Behaving Badly. GM 5. Central Intelligence A stellar cast headed by Kim Cattrall and Ed Harris bring to life the hidden history of the CIA in this scintillating drama that delights in its roll call of maverick agents. Cattrall is our guide to the USA’s many foreign policy misadventures in her role as the agency’s highest rank female officer, Eloise Page. David Crawford 6. Nile Rodgers: Deep Hidden Meaning Artists discussing their “process” might sound a little high-falutin but when the art is music and the artists range from Paul McCartney and Bjorn Ulvaeus to Shakira and Debbie Harry - each in conversation with the genius Nile Rodgers - the listening couldn’t be more compelling. Rodgers’s insights abound and the joy of shared creativity is infectious. GM Current affairs 7. The Rest Is Politics US Famously sacked by Donald Trump after 11 days in the role of White House director of communications, Anthony Scaramucci shares his insider-outsider insights and impressive historical knowledge in one of the fastest growing and always compelling political podcasts. Bringing an expertise honed over 30 years reporting on world news, his co-host is the cut-glass Katty Kay. GM Anthony Scaramucci: "My wife hates Trump almost as much as Melania hates him" 8. A Podcast of One’s Own Extremely earnest, lacking rhetorical flair and apparently content with what is a terrible name for her show, Julia Gillard, the former Australian prime minister and presenter of this interview series focused on folks striving for gender equality, is not a natural broadcaster. And yet her limitations do not diminish but rather enhance her encounters with activists, actors and authors, among others. It’s an odd kind of alchemy. GM Former Australian PM Julia Gillard explains the mission behind her podcast - and where its earnings go 9. Newscast BBC News political editor and co-host Chris Mason tells RT that, in a market packed with similar offerings, what sets this daily analysis show apart are its BBC values, what he calls “anchors not shackles”. He tells us: “Opinions are ten a penny. There is still an audience for hopefully intelligent conversation which is deliberately not about what I think.” Caroline Frost 10. Black British Lives Matter Inspired by the 2021 collection of essays of the same name edited by Sir Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder, the podcast interrogates and celebrates what it means to be Black and British. With each episode dedicated to a particular subject - from mental health to art, food to hair - Henry, Ryder and their guests’ conversations are rich and revelatory. GM 11. The Take (Al Jazeera) For those missing the breadth and depth of the BBC’s HardTalk, some comfort is to be found in this daily interview-driven gem of a show fronted by Malika Bilal. In the last month, it has focused on the attempted assassination of Colombia’s presidential candidate Miguel Uribe, student protests in Bangladesh, and Iran’s right to resist regime change. GM History 12. Empire – William Dalrymple and Anita Anand With three years, almost 300 shows and 75m downloads under their belts, Dalrymple and Anand have come a long way from when Dalrymple first appeared as a guest on The Rest Is History. But from small acorns, great oaks grow. Much like empires. Only great oaks don’t brutally suppress, massacre and inflict famines on other trees. If you believe that the British empire was a benevolent, virtuous and civilising force, you should listen to this podcast. You won’t, but you should. GM 13. The Rest Is Classified – David McCloskey and Gordon Corera Another thoroughbred from Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger stable, The Rest Is Classified has a former CIA analyst and ex-BBC security correspondent trade spy stories to raise eyebrows and heart rates. Meanwhile, we await Goalhanger’s inevitable podcast about sleep, “The Rest Is Rest”. GM 14. Centuries of Sound With a mix of up to four hours for every year of recorded sound since 1859, James Errington’s aural collages are epic, sprawling portraits of change. For example,1925 was the first year that, in theory, all audible sound could finally be captured. Among Errington’s ear-tefacts from the time are songs from Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and Guy Visser with his Singing Duck. GM 15. Half-Life Author Joe Dunthorpe uncovers a disquieting truth when he tries to learn more about his German-Jewish family’s dramatic escape from Nazi Germany in 1936. Themes of hidden family trauma, ethical compromises and the very physical scars of war mix in a story that stretches across continents and features a soundscape that subtly reflects the disturbing subject. DC 16. 16 Sunsets From the team behind the award-winning 13 Minutes to the Moon, including space expert presenter Kevin Fong, this offers a deep dive into the cultural, political and scientific context of the birth of the NASA Shuttle programme. The Zimmer-esque score sets the scene, celebrating the collaboration of uniquely skilled people, all clearly made of “the right stuff”. CF Crime 17. Mark Horgan – Stakeknife Three years in the making, featuring dozens of interviews and using never-before-heard secret recordings, Mark Horgan’s investigation into the double life of Freddie Scappaticci aka “Stakeknife”, the IRA member responsible for punishing informers within the paramilitary organisation – who was himself an informer – is a rare and unflinching look at just what the British got up to in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. GM 18. The Grave Robbers - Sue Mitchell Having caught a scorpion in Iraq and exposed widescale abuse of England’s power of attorney in previous series, the award-winning Sue Mitchell maintains a domestic focus for her next must-hear pod: an investigation into criminal gangs who fake wills to steal the estates of the dead and purloin other people’s inheritances. Two-thirds of Britons don’t have a will so the victim pool is huge. Luckily, Mitchell used to be a lifeguard. GM 19. Not Another Crime Podcast Not to be confused with the possibly-a-parody Not Another True Crime Podcast presented by “partners in crime, wine and time” Danny Murphy and Sara Levine, this Australian offering has journalist Georgia Love and civilian Sammy Petersen discuss often gruesome deaths, usually of women, also over a glass or two of wine. Because nothing goes with discussions of violent misogyny like a chardonnay. GM 20. Operation Seal Bay A sleepy Welsh coastal village. Some strange goings-on down at the beach. Retired locals set out to investigate in the true story of what happened when some wrong’uns chose a quiet Pembrokeshire cove to stash their… I won’t spoil it. Six enjoyable episodes remind us there’s no sleuth like a pensioner, especially when a stranger starts dropping £50 notes in the village pub. CF 21. Stalked The horrors of one of the most pervasive and pernicious of modern crimes, cyber stalking, are laid bare in this empathetic series, which gently draws listeners into the story, through the relationship between investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr (the journalist who exposed the workings of Cambridge Analytica) and the victim, who happens to be her ex-stepdaughter, Hannah. DC Wellness 22. The Mel Robbins Podcast Mel Robbins describes her podcast as about “being real” and herself as “a friend who tells you the truth, helps you focus on what matters, and pushes you to create a more meaningful life”. She wants to help you change and, with a reported 37m monthly downloads, Robbins seems to be effecting change on a large scale, as seems necessary nowadays. After all, don’t we all know at least one person who could do with such guidance? (If you don’t know someone, it’s you who needs the guidance.) GM 23. Where Should We Begin? The intimate environment of the medium has lent itself to thousands of therapy podcasts but, for eight years, the grand dame of couples counselling has been Belgian-American Esther Perel. With humour softening the blows of her forensic insight into people’s motivations and demons, time and again she dismantles the armour around her subjects and helps them find a way to tell another, truer story. CF 24. Just One Thing With his scientific but accessible approach to improving health and wellbeing, Michael Mosley changed hundreds of thousands of people’s lives. Just One Thing is the perfect legacy of the man and his endeavours. “He was a great communicator and people trusted him,” his widow Dr Clare Bailey Mosley told RT in November. “He really did want to make a difference to people’s lives.” GM 25. Katherine Ryan’s What’s My Age Again? Probably the only podcast to demand blood from its celebrity guests – in order to establish their age at a cellular level – this series sees the Canadian comic play host to a resident scientist advising the likes of Katie Price, Jedward and Alastair Campbell on how lifestyle changes may make them feel younger. “More sleep, less alcohol” may be news for some. GM Sport 26. The Price of Football Football finance experts Kevin Day and Kieran Maguire deep-dive into club accounts and tot up the costs of the beautiful game – and often reveal some ugly truths. Twice weekly, this digest covers the Premier League and local clubs with the same no-nonsense diligence. GM 27. Football Daily: The Commentators’ View Though BBC commentators Ian Dennis, Alistair Bruce-Ball and John Murray have their name above the door, there’s a whole community of commentariat called up to offer insights and wisdom you don’t hear on the radio, including Vicki Sparks, the first woman to commentate live on a World Cup match on British TV, in 2018. GM 28. The Grade Cricketer Among dozens of podcasts dedicated to all things leather on willow, this remains the giant, with a slot on TV and live shows around the world. Hosted by Australians Sam Perry and Ian Higgins who met playing grade cricket, the tone is more Shane Warne than Ricky Ponting, with their respect for the game matched by their larrikin irreverence for everything else. CF 29. Sir Bradley Wiggins’ Café Aficionado If you’re going to have a podcast about professional cycling, then who better to host it than the first Briton to win the Tour de France and a man who’s not short of an opinion or two, Bradley Wiggins? He’s joined by his friend, the journalist and similarly velo-obsessive Graham Willgoss, to ruminate on all the latest action from the cycling world. DC 30. The Game Changers The bad news is that “women’s sport” in 2025 still needs its own podcast. The good news is that, with host Sue Anstiss (co-founder of the Women’s Sport Collective), we meet athletes, coaches and administrators, all trailblazers who have broken down barriers, and shifted the needle on equality in sport. Inspiring stuff, even as Anstiss waits for the day when we have to call it “the men’s World Cup”. CF The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Audio coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
BBC Radio 2's Sara Cox reveals why she sometimes "struggles to maintain eye contact" with friends after new podcast
On their podcast Teen Commandments, the Radio 2 presenter and her longtime pal Clare Hamilton discuss parenting teenagers and reminisce about their own teenage misadventures together.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. What is the mission of your podcast? Sara Cox We wanted to create a place where people could go if they needed a bit of escapism from their own domestic situations, for them to see that everybody is pulling their own hair out sometimes. We also really want to make people laugh because we laugh a lot. Clare Hamilton Sometimes when you have teenagers, it feels like you’re going a bit mad and you take it a bit personally when they’re giving you attitude. We’re here saying you’re not on your own. It’s fine, you’re not going crazy. How does it differ from your other work? Sara This is a Sara Cox production and I really enjoyed the production side of it. But I guess the main difference is that, while I’m 100 per cent me on the radio, I’m aware young children or my in-laws could be listening so it has a family feel, while on the pod it’s just me and Clare having a brew – or a margarita – and no subject or topic is off the table. There are no holds barred. Sometimes I do struggle to maintain eye contact with some friends who have listened. Clare I’ve never done anything like this, but I’m absolutely loving it, being in a room with a microphone. Sara She’s such a natural that I forget it’s not her actual job. She’s a hairdresser by trade, and she’s not used to being in front of audiences but she’s brilliant. Clare I’m still doing my day job and it’s bizarre because my clients are finding out quite a bit about me now. I was trying to keep it separate because it’s a little bit rude at times. I’ll be doing a client’s hair and she’s like, “Well, I had a listen…” There are lots of child-rearing podcasts. What’s your USP? Sara There are lots of brilliant podcasts about parents and about parenting young children, but there isn’t as much out there about teenagers. Clare We get a lot of people saying that our friendship shines through, that we’re not an artificial pairing. We bring different dynamics, too, because I’m a single mum. Sara lives in London and I live up north, so I live a very different life, and my teens do as well. So we bring that into it. Sara It’s not an advice pod. We thoroughly encourage people to do the opposite of what we do with our parenting. People call it more of a parental panic group. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Audio coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Will Lord of the Rings be the one soundtrack to rule them all? Vote now in the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame
Howard Shore's score topped the Classic FM Movie Musical Hall of Fame in 2024 – can it repeat that success this year?
At first glance, Canadian composer Howard Shore may have seemed an unusual choice for director Peter Jackson to pick to score the most ambitious production in cinema history, the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Until 2001 Shore was better known for his work in the crime and thriller genre, and had never taken on a project of this scale before. Nevertheless, Shore’s score was a triumph - it features over 80 different themes and motifs representing the various characters and locations, and won him three Oscars, four Grammys and three Golden Globes. And since 2023, it has topped the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame (in 2020 it came second to John Williams’s music for Schindler’s List). That’s not bad when you consider the 2024 top ten includes three Williams soundtracks (Schindler’s List, Star Wars and Jurassic Park), two by John Barry (Out of Africa and Dances with Wolves), two by Ennio Morricone (The Mission and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), one by Hans Zimmer (Gladiator) and one by Vangelis (guess which one that is...). The fact that iconic scores such as Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho and Henry Mancini’s Pink Panther placed in the 90s may be surprising to some, but then when you look at what fell just outside the top 40 – The Great Escape, the James Bond theme, The Third Man, Jaws – it becomes apparent that a few hummable bars is not enough to win the vote. Now it’s time to decide this year’s Hall of Fame – the vote opened on Monday 21st July and closes at 11.59pm on Sunday 10th August – so if you want your favourite soundtrack to have a chance of hitting the top spot, head over to Classic FM now. You can find suggestions on Global Player when you go to vote, but for some other hints, the Radio Times films team will be picking their favourites from recent films in the issue of the magazine on sale Tuesday 5th August. Visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
From shows on Radio 1 and Radio 4 via podcasts, Greg James continues to add to his CV — but who inspired all that enthusiasm and curiosity?
Rewinder is on Radio 4 on Saturday at 10.30am. Add it to your collection Perched on a deckchair outside Sheffield City Hall, Greg James is enthusing about having just been on stage with his childhood hero and favourite son of the city, Michael Palin. “Michael massively inspired me. I must have been about eight or nine when I watched Around the World in 80 Days, and I just saw him as this wonderful travel presenter, but then I went on this voyage of discovery and realised this very funny man was also part of the greatest comedy group of all time, and a scriptwriter, an actor, a director and an author.” The pair were recording a live episode of James’s Radio 4 series, Rewinder, at the Crossed Wires podcast festival, which featured a trove of archive clips linked to the former Python’s life and career – from his first screen performance in a saucy Ken Dodd sketch to his old geography teacher reminiscing about Palin’s school days. The previous evening James hosted another show at the festival, Nobody Expects the Michael Palin Podcast, in which ostensibly he tried to persuade Palin – surely one of the few famous people not to have a podcast – that he needs one. “One thing I love about him is that he is endlessly curious – he loves meeting new people, experiencing new things and finding out about stuff, and I think finding out about podcasts is an extension of everything else that he does.” But the podcast wheeze was really a red herring: “It was an excuse to interview him about his life in Sheffield. That was the magic.” An endless curiosity is perhaps something that could also be attributed to the 39-year-old Radio 1 Breakfast presenter, Radio 4 archivist, Tailenders cricket podcast host, children’s author and, from this year, creative director of Crossed Wires. When asked where that drive comes from, he returns to the influence of Michael Palin, “He approaches everything he does with such enthusiasm and genuine passion – I try to do that as well. You need role models and I don’t think there’s a better one than him. He’s a great example of ‘nobody is just one thing’.” Yet one does wonder whether the multiple strands of James’s career are in fact a strategy for a man about to bid farewell to his 30s, whose main job for the past 18 years has been on a pop radio station famous for sidelining presenters when they don’t fit its young demographic. Is his Radio 4 work, Tailenders and the podcast festival an insurance against the time when Radio 1 bosses decide he’s outgrown his audience? “No, I don’t look at it like that. I take on too many things because I enjoy them, not because I won’t have any work. I love Radio 1 with my whole heart, it’s all I’ve listened to since I was a kid, and actually I didn’t think I’d still want to be on it, but I’m still finding new challenges with it. It’s fantastic, I still find the listeners endlessly fascinating and funny.” James says he has a good relationship with his bosses, who he checks in with every year to make sure they still want him to continue in the job and that, if in that annual review they decided it was enough, “I would have no regrets. I would go, ‘OK, I’ve got more to give but I’m cool with it.’” As he’s being given an extra 30 minutes each morning over the summer, that day isn’t quite here yet, and there are hints an early exit would not be greeted quite so coolly. “I feel incredibly lucky to still be on Radio 1, it’s a real privilege to be there so I don’t want to go too soon. It takes a long time to get to the breakfast show, so I want to make sure that when I leave, it’s the exact right time.” When that time does come, James will no doubt be emulating his hero and boarding a train for a new adventure.
Greg James on his Radio 1 future – and meeting childhood hero Michael Palin
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Perched on a deckchair outside Sheffield City Hall, Greg James is enthusing about having just been on stage with his childhood hero and favourite son of the city, Michael Palin. “Michael massively inspired me. I must have been about eight or nine when I watched Around the World in 80 Days, and I just saw him as this wonderful travel presenter, but then I went on this voyage of discovery and realised this very funny man was also part of the greatest comedy group of all time, and a scriptwriter, an actor, a director and an author.” The pair were recording a live episode of James’s Radio 4 series, Rewinder, at the Crossed Wires podcast festival, which featured a trove of archive clips linked to the former Python’s life and career – from his first screen performance in a saucy Ken Dodd sketch to his old geography teacher reminiscing about Palin’s school days. The previous evening James hosted another show at the festival, Nobody Expects the Michael Palin Podcast, in which ostensibly he tried to persuade Palin – surely one of the few famous people not to have a podcast – that he needs one. “One thing I love about him is that he is endlessly curious – he loves meeting new people, experiencing new things and finding out about stuff, and I think finding out about podcasts is an extension of everything else that he does.” But the podcast wheeze was really a red herring: “It was an excuse to interview him about his life in Sheffield. That was the magic.” An endless curiosity is perhaps something that could also be attributed to the 39-year-old Radio 1 Breakfast presenter, Radio 4 archivist, Tailenders cricket podcast host, children’s author and, from this year, creative director of Crossed Wires. When asked where that drive comes from, he returns to the influence of Michael Palin, “He approaches everything he does with such enthusiasm and genuine passion – I try to do that as well. You need role models and I don’t think there’s a better one than him. He’s a great example of ‘nobody is just one thing’.” Yet one does wonder whether the multiple strands of James’s career are in fact a strategy for a man about to bid farewell to his 30s, whose main job for the past 18 years has been on a pop radio station famous for sidelining presenters when they don’t fit its young demographic. Is his Radio 4 work, Tailenders and the podcast festival an insurance against the time when Radio 1 bosses decide he’s outgrown his audience? “No, I don’t look at it like that. I take on too many things because I enjoy them, not because I won’t have any work. I love Radio 1 with my whole heart, it’s all I’ve listened to since I was a kid, and actually I didn’t think I’d still want to be on it, but I’m still finding new challenges with it. It’s fantastic, I still find the listeners endlessly fascinating and funny.” James says he has a good relationship with his bosses, who he checks in with every year to make sure they still want him to continue in the job and that, if in that annual review they decided it was enough, “I would have no regrets. I would go, ‘OK, I’ve got more to give but I’m cool with it.’” As he’s being given an extra 30 minutes each morning over the summer, that day isn’t quite here yet, and there are hints an early exit would not be greeted quite so coolly. “I feel incredibly lucky to still be on Radio 1, it’s a real privilege to be there so I don’t want to go too soon. It takes a long time to get to the breakfast show, so I want to make sure that when I leave, it’s the exact right time.” When that time does come, James will no doubt be emulating his hero and boarding a train for a new adventure. The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Audio coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
BBC Shipping Forecast announcer shares advice for Pulp's Jarvis Cocker
The singer recorded a forecast for a live show at Crossed Wires Podcast Festival in Sheffield, but it seems it wasn't perfect.
Two days before his band’s “surprise” appearance at Glastonbury, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker recorded a special version of the Shipping Forecast, to mark the 100th anniversary of the BBC Radio 4 mainstay. Cocker’s version was played out to the audience at a live show on Friday 4th July – the exact day of the 100th anniversary – at the Crossed Wires Podcast Festival in Sheffield, including two discerning pairs of ears, Shipping Forecast regular presenters Lisa Costello and Viji Alles, who weren’t slow to review Cocker’s efforts. Costello was taken with the timbre of the Pulp frontman (and erstwhile radio broadcaster on 6 Music and Radio 4’s Wireless Nights), saying: “You can just swim in that voice!” Alles however, had his reservations about Cocker’s slow and low delivery: “He needs to work on the pacing. You do need to get the whole forecast out in 11 minutes.” Cocker said that reading “The Ships” as it’s known at Radio 4 “might be one of the best moments of my life”. He admitted that, like many, he used to listen while going to sleep, citing that “the repetitive nature” and “the soothing nature of the person who reads it” helped him to drop off. Costello and Alles later read out a very localised version of the bulletin that referenced Sheffield areas and beloved institutions, including the now defunct Coles department store in which the event was held. Talking to Radio Times backstage after the event, Costello and Alles reiterated how important timing is to the one Radio 4 programme that remains a fixed point in the schedule – most famously during the Fifth 2011 Ashes Test match in which, with England on the verge of a famous victory, Test Match Special on LW was interrupted by the Shipping Forecast. Frantic cricket fans returned to the match only to hear that the final Australian wicket had fallen and England had won Down Under for the first time in a quarter of a century – a historic event that had happened while Radio 4 was bringing us the latest maritime weather updates from Fastnet and Lundy. Costello admitted to the burden that carries: “I feel that weight of responsibility. We have a little announcer’s bible for reference and about a quarter of it is devoted to the language and rhythm of the Shipping Forecast. “What’s hammered home is first check the date and time of the script you’ve picked up from the printer, because if it went out at the wrong time, you’d have to arrange a rebroadcast. That’s lived in the back of my head ever since.” Given that timing is paramount for The Ships, it feels strange that you can download the Forecasts as a podcast from BBC Sounds, but Costello explains: “It has a shelf life, because if you miss one it is still valid until the next one is issued.” And Alles picked up on what Jarvis Cocker said about how he used the Shipping Forecast to get to sleep. “People do use it as a form of entertainment, whether it’s as poetry, whether it’s to put them to sleep, or just something to bookend their day. A lot of people, the last thing they do before they go to sleep is listen to the Shipping Forecast. This is the end of another day.” Costello was aware of this, long before she started reading the forecast in 2017. “Thirty years ago my boyfriend of the time couldn’t go to sleep unless he’d listened to the Shipping Forecast.” It must be strange for him now to hear his old girlfriend’s voice just as he drops off, but reading something on the radio that is so meaningful to so many people – whether mariners, poets, insomniacs, or pop stars — means that the continuity announcers can be recognised just by their voices in the most unlikely of places. Alles recalled that it happened to him most recently at a book launch in London, “I was just a member of the audience and asked a question of the author, and somebody came up to me afterwards and said, ‘What’s your name?’, ‘Viji Alles’, and he replied, ‘I listened to you announcing from Bangalore in India.’ He’s an Indian national who studied here briefly about 30 years ago, got hooked on Radio 4 and continues to listen.” Alles never ceases to be amazed when recognised in public. “The first rule of radio is you’re talking to one person not an audience, and when you’re doing the late forecast, you’ll be the only person in that studio, you may be the only person in the whole of Broadcasting House, so when someone comes up and tells you where they listen to you from, it’s quite mind-boggling.” The Shipping Broadcast airs on BBC Radio 4 and is also available on BBC Sounds. Check out more of our Audio coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Sarah Koenig on 10 years of Serial: 'I didn't know we were making a true crime podcast'
In conversation with BBC broadcaster Samira Ahmed at the International Women’s Podcast Festival at London’s Southbank Centre on Thursday 3rd October, Serial presenter Sarah Koenig revealed all about her career and the success of the podcast — with 420 million downloads, the most in the world, and the first podcast to win a Peabody Award (the radio industry’s equivalent of a Pulitzer). Asked what lay behind the wild popularity of the first series, which focused on the case of Adnan Syed, a high school student from the outskirts of Baltimore who was accused of murdering his girlfriend Hae Min Lee, Koenig said: "I’m very, very good at what I do… I’m kidding!" In truth she couldn’t really pinpoint one thing except, "Boy, people like a murder mystery!" But she admitted that isn’t the case for her, saying: "I don't look at true crime, I don't read it, I don't watch it. I didn't know that was what I was making." Asked how she felt about inspiring a true crime podcast boom, Koenig replied: "It's weird. It seems an obvious way to tell those stories [in a chapter-by-chapter narrative]. But I don't listen to them, so I don't have an opinion." Does she view female-led true crime podcasts as her spawn? "No! But if you're doing it well, I'm happy to claim them as my spawn. But I'm worried at the level of crap that gets made." Responding to a question on whether the rise of amateur sleuths, seen most notoriously in the Nicola Bulley case, was a product of true crime podcasts, she was suitably appalled. "I think that's horrible. It's terrible and cruel. Anything that's seat of the pants, [someone thinking], 'I'll just put this out there,' I think that's terrible." Is there anything that she personally has learnt from the making of Serial and other podcasts? "Most importantly to warn interviewees and sources about what their involvement means. That’s my main ethical concern, that we’re exposing sources to the public in ways they hadn’t anticipated. In series 1, it felt horrible that [interviewees] had people going to their houses, contacting them on social media. Now we can tell them what’s likely to come and help them deal with the exposure." What about the family of the victim from series 1, Hae Min Lee? They were never involved in the podcast but had a lot more exposure during a terrible time in their lives. "They never wanted to cooperate, we tried so hard to get them involved. At Adnan Syed’s 2023 retrial was the first time I heard Hae Min Lee’s brother say he thought Adnan was guilty. It didn't make a difference, I think there was something wrong with the case. The series was about the system and why it's not working, why it's flawed. "I feel terrible for Hae Min Lee’s family, it must be so painful for them. When I was reading the transcript of what Hae Min Lee’s mother said in court during the trial, I knew what was on the page, but when I came to read it for the tape, I couldn’t get through it without crying. "There will always be pain in those circumstances but as a journalist you can’t stop because you’re worried about causing pain, as long as it’s not egregious, sensational pain." Did making the podcast have an impact on her? "There are things that keep me up at night while making the series, like how what I’m planning to say will affect the subjects, but afterwards I’m more able to let it go." Does she think that Serial has had a profound wider impact? "I can’t see anything major that has changed. What’s been heartening is hearing people say, ‘I became a lawyer or a journalist or joined the Innocence Project because of you.’ A lot of young people have been inspired." So what podcasts does she listen to? "I don’t really listen to podcasts. I knew you’d ask that and that I’d have to make up something. I’m a terrible audience because I’m over-critical. I work from home, I exercise (not as much as I should) but I like to have no noise. I don’t even listen to my own work. I haven’t listened to the Guantanamo one [series 4]." Talking about things she may have heard on podcasts that annoy her, she said: "Those throat-clearing sort-of set-ups, ‘Are you comfortable?’ ‘Do we have water?’ and so on. Stop doing that! The other thing, and I have compassion for people doing it, is having to fill time, for whatever reason, and you can hear them stretching material too far, repeating the main points again and again." At the end of the evening, Koenig was awarded the International Women’s Podcast Award for Recognition of Global Impact by fellow podcast queen Alice Levine. Having had such a lauded career for investigative journalism, she must get a lot of people asking for her help to look into cases for them? "Yes, a lot. I even had calls from people in prison. Some of them were funny, just crazy. This one guy wanted me to investigate a lawyer he says shafted him out of $1,200! And he’s asking me. He sent me a bundle of papers on it, and in the middle of it is something saying he murdered his wife in the driveway! But he wants me to investigate his lawyer!" Check out more of our Audio coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Rosamund Pike on winning a BBC Audio Drama Award, her love for the medium – and why you won't hear her in The Archers
"I'm not really a guest appearance kind."
On Sunday night at the BBC Radio Theatre in London, Radio 4 controller Mohit Bakaya presented Rosamund Pike with the Best Actress gong at the BBC Audio Drama Awards, for her starring role in the podcast drama People Who Knew Me adapted by theatre writer Daniella Isaacs from Kim Hooper's novel. She played New Yorker Emily, who uses the horror of the 9/11 attacks as an opportunity to flee a difficult family situation and set up a new life in California as Connie Pryne, bringing up a daughter, Claire, on her own. Yet 14 years later, when she receives a cancer diagnosis, she realises she must confront the life she ran away from, if only for the sake of Claire. Talking to Radio Times backstage in Broadcasting House, Pike says of the award: "Audio is a very personal passion for me, I grew up travelling with my parents on long car journeys and the thing that got me through those journeys was a box of 16 tapes that contained a whole book. And it was an illustrious panel of judges for this award; it's very meaningful when the people on the judging committee are all actors and that this show moved them enough to vote for me." Talking further about her early years, when she first became aware of audio drama, Pike reveals that Margot Boyd, who played Mrs Antrobus in The Archers from 1984 to 2004, used to live in the next block of flats over from her childhood home. "She was my first real contact with a real actress, so she was my idea of what an actress looked like." And like for many of us, The Archers is emblematic for her: "The music and hearing that was I suppose what everyone thought of as audio drama." Given her early associations with The Archers, would she follow in the footsteps of the likes of Queen Camilla, Princess Margaret, Sir Terry Wogan, Dame Judi Dench and, er, Rylan, and make a guest appearance in Ambridge? "I'm not really a guest appearance kind. I feel there is sort of leaders and there are followers and I think I prefer to be the leader. I like to set the tone rather than try to catch up to it, and that's generally in life, in all things, that's not just about work." While she may not be turning up for a pint in The Bull with Eddie Grundy, her love for working in audio is apparent: "I love the free rein the imagination gets. It's a bit like the performance is the equivalent of the rehearsal room for a play, where you can be completely the person in your head but it doesn't matter if you don't yet look like the person. It doesn't matter if you've got a spot that day or you've got a bruise. It's that freedom I love. With People Who Knew Me, I can play the character in her 20s and 40 because I can make my voice sound younger, but I can't make myself look like that." She's quick to squash the idea that not having to be in hair and make-up for hours and worry about facial expressions makes playing a role in an audio drama any easier: "You've still got to find the character within yourself, and there's actually more care of whether your voice sounds 'clicky' or whether you have a cold, which I did have during part of People Who Knew Me, because suddenly you're hyper aware of every little way it changes your voice." While many people may be aware of singers and actors drinking warm honey and lemon drinks to protect their voices, Pike shares another trick of the recording booth – always have a supply of green apples. "If your voice is a bit sticky, take a couple of bites of a green apple and the high quantity of pectin cuts through that stickiness." Writer Daniella Isaacs also directed the drama and the way she recorded, eschewing the traditional radio drama set-up of actors in front of microphone stands, scripts in hand, in favour of the actors wearing headset mics and using tablets for scripts so they could be mobile and as naturalistic as possible, was something that Pike enjoyed. "People have critiqued audio drama in the past for being slightly stilted, but the modern technology means we can be very free. Daniella wanted it to sound like eavesdropping and it was the first time I'd done an audio drama where you could embrace somebody or somebody could cry into your shoulder or you could eat a baguette and all that sound would be captured. She wanted to hear mouth noises, sniffs, chewing, snivelling, breathing, catches of emotion, voice cracking. She encouraged us to play and live the scenes. It certainly was [liberating]." At a time when radio drama budgets are increasingly feeling the squeeze, Pike sees the virtue in what you can do with sound versus a visual medium: "I think what's brilliant is when a story that is big can be contained within the audio space. So this [People Who Knew Me] with 9/11 and all the huge things that happen in it, it would have been a very, very expensive television production, and we were able to do it and make it real for people." On collecting her award, Pike said she was surprised that the drama would be broadcast on Radio 4 in the Book at Bedtime slot, as she thought it a harrowing listen and was worried it would disrupt listeners' sleep. Speaking backstage she revealed the effect the role had on her: "The way I feel about Connie/Emily, when I got to the end of [listening to] the story, I found myself right back there, feeling her feelings again. [By the end] I sort of got choked up, because it feels like something I've lived and inhabited." That's the power of audio drama. Full list of winners at the BBC Audio Drama Awards Best Original Single Drama WINNER Dear Harry Kane by James Fritz, producer Sally Avens, BBC Audio Drama London Benny and Hitch by Andrew McCaldon, producers Neil Varley and Tracey Neale, BBC Audio Drama London Eat and Run by Paolo Chianta, producer Lorna Newman, BBC Audio Drama North Best Adaptation WINNER Bess Loves Porgy by Edwin DuBose Heyward, adapted by Roy Williams, producer Gill Parry, feral inc COMMENDATION If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino, adapted by Tim Crouch and Toby Jones, producer Nadia Molinari, BBC Audio Drama North COMMENDATION Beowulf Retold based on the version by Seamus Heaney, producer Pauline Harris, BBC Audio Drama London Best Original Series or Serial WINNER Trust by Jonathan Hall, producer Gary Brown, BBC Audio Drama North COMMENDATION There’s Something I Need to Tell You by John Scott Dryden and Misha Kawnel, producer Emma Hearn, Goldhawk Productions Flirties, written and produced by Jess Hamilton, Audiocraft Best Actor WINNER Hiran Abeysekera, Dear Harry Kane, director Sally Avens, BBC Audio Drama London COMMENDATION Lorn Macdonald, Confessions of a Justified Sinner, director Kirsty Williams, BBC Scotland Tim McInerny, Benny & Hitch, director Tracey Neale, BBC Audio Drama London Best Actress WINNER Rosamund Pike, People Who Knew Me, director Daniella Isaacs, Merman Gabrielle Brooks, Bess Loves Porgy, director Michael Buffong, feral inc Maxine Peake, The Women of Troy, director Nadia Molinari, BBC Audio Drama North Best Supporting Performance WINNER Mark Heap, Kafka’s Dick, directors Polly Thomas and Dermot Daly, Naked Productions Sacha Dhawan, Anna Karenina, director Nadia Molinari, BBC Audio Drama North The Marc Beeby Award for Best Debut Performance WINNER Rosalind Eleazar, Hindsight, director Gaynor Macfarlane, BBC Scotland COMMENDATION Jadie Rose Hobson, Exposure, director Anne Isger, BBC Audio Drama London COMMENDATION Dan Parr, The Test Batter Can’t Breathe, director Tracey Neale, BBC Audio Drama London Best Sit Com or Comedy Drama WINNER Where to, Mate? devised by Jo Enright, Peter Slater, Abdullah Afzal, Nina Gilligan, Andy Salthouse, Keith Carter, Jason Wingard, producer Carl Cooper, BBC Studios Audio Call Jonathan Pie by Tom Walker, producer Alison Vernon-Smith, Yada-Yada Audio She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith, adapted by Barunka O’Shaughnessy, producer Emma Harding, BBC Cymru Wales Best Stand Up Comedy WINNER Sarah Keyworth: Are You a Boy or a Girl by by Sarah Keyworth, additional material Ruby Clyde, producer Georgia Keating, BBC Studios Audio COMMENDATION Janey Godley: the C Bomb by Janey Godley, producers Julia Sutherland and Richard Melvin, Dabster Productions Olga Koch: OK Computer by Olga Koch and Charlie Dinkin, producer Benjamin Sutton, BBC Studios Audio Best Use of Sound WINNER Hamlet Noir, sound by David Chilton, Lucinda Mason Brown, Weronika Andersen, producers Charlotte Melén, Carl Prekopp and Saskia Black, Almost Tangible The Dark Is Rising, sound by Gareth Fry, producers Catherine Bailey and Tim Bell, Catherine Bailey Productions and Complicité The Women of Troy, sound by Sharon Hughes, producer Nadia Molinari, BBC Audio Drama North Best Podcast Audio Drama WINNER Badger and the Blitz by Richard Turley and Darren Francis, producer Richard Turley, ROXO The Salvation by Justin Lockey, Jeffrey Aidoo, and AK Benedict, producers John Hamm and Boz Temple-Morris, Holy Mountain and Free Turn Tagged by Brett Neichin and John Scott Dryden, producer Emma Hearn, Sony Music Entertainment and Goldhawk Productions Best European Drama WINNER This Word by Marta Rebzda, producer Waldemar Modestowicz, Polish Radio Theatre Faust (I Never Read It) by Noam Brusilovsky, producer Andrea Oetzmann, SWR Südwestrundfunk with Deutschlandfunk The Supervisor by Nis-Momme Stockmann, producer Michael Becker, NDR Norddeutscher Rundfunk IMISON AWARD 2024 WINNER Benny and Hitch by Andrew McCaldon, producers Neil Varley and Tracey Neale, BBC Audio Drama London Happy Hour by Liv Fowler, producer Jelena Budimir, Naked Productions In Moderation by Katie Bonna, producer Sally Avens, BBC Audio Drama London TINNISWOOD AWARD 2024 WINNER Cracking by Shôn Dale-Jones, producer John Norton, BBC Cymru Wales About a Dog by Huw Brentnall, producer Fiona McAlpine, Allegra Productions Ghosted by Lindsay Sharman, directed by the author for Long Cat Media Scooters, Shooters and Shottas by John R Gordon, director Rikki Beadle-Blair, Urban Wolf for Team Angelica/The Art Machine Read more: Martha Kearney on leaving Today: 'There's no radio programme quite like it' Bob Hoskins 'lost' radio play to be rebroadcast – can you help find more? Check out more of our Radio coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Bob Hoskins 'lost' radio play to be rebroadcast – can you help find more?
"Out there, in people's sheds and attics, are reels and tapes containing more radio jewels..."
“It’s almost like a national duty… in the same way it was your duty to make sure your house wasn’t emanating light in the Second World War.” Producer James Peak may have his tongue in cheek when comparing wartime blackouts to a call for members of the public to return any tapes of old BBC programmes they find to the archives, but as he oversees a BBC season of acclaimed plays that have been recently rediscovered (which continues on R4 Extra and Radio 3 in May, July and September) you can understand his evangelical zeal. Peak claims “there’s not a duff one among them”, but pick of the crop has to be Radio 4’s Sunday drama (3pm), a production of arguably Harold Pinter’s best play, The Dumb Waiter, starring Bob Hoskins and Roy Kinnear as two hit men waiting in a restaurant cellar for news of their next target, which was broadcast on the World Service in 1981 and has not been heard since. There’s also a lost 1980 radio adaptation of Dennis Potter’s 1971 Play for Today, Traitor, on Monday on Radio 4 at 2.15pm, starring Denholm Elliott as a thinly veiled Kim Philby character being interviewed by a TV crew in Moscow. Although those two were found nestled in an obscure corner of the BBC archive – in the Transcription Service, which made copies to sell programmes overseas – many of the plays being broadcast were discovered among tapes sent to archivists the Radio Circle, who Radio Times worked with on our Treasure Hunt campaign to find lost programmes, which uncovered such gems as episodes of Desert Island Discs and Workers’ Playtime, plus a special TV treat that will be revealed in our magazine's Feedback pages next week. This season grew from a tranche of tapes the Radio Circle had catalogued, restored and returned to the archive, which included a staggering number of radio plays – more than 1,000 in total. Peak explains the process: “Often these things are found on reels or tapes or obscure formats of the time, or sometimes they’ve been recorded off the airwaves by people in little Heath Robinson-style sheds [with] these fantastic, bespoke methods of early recording. “We remaster them and get rid of the hisses and the scratches. Then of course you’re faced with the question of how clean is too clean? You don’t necessarily want to get rid of everything because you want the sense that these were hidden and of their time.” Steve Arnold of the Radio Circle describes the process as an “audio car wash”, while his colleague, restoration expert Keith Wickham, agrees that you still want a bit of grit amid the sparkle: “If you take everything out, it starts eating into the programme itself. What you want is something people will happily listen to, even if it’s got some noise. It’s a balance you have to strike.” Asked whether artificial intelligence could do the same job – in the same way AI tools were used to recover John Lennon’s demo for the Beatles’ recent single Now and Then – Wickham and Arnold are sceptical whether it would work for spoken word programmes. Arnold does raise the possibility that “there’s a potential for reconstructing programmes from scripts, because if you’ve got enough of somebody’s voice you can possibly give the AI the script and tell it this is this voice, this is this one”. It's a glimpse of the future of restoring the past, but in the meantime James Peak has a simple message: "Out there, in people's sheds and attics, are reels and tapes containing more radio jewels – which are part of our shared cultural heritage and belong to the nation! If this is true for you, remember it is a heroic act to get them back into the archives so that listeners can hear them again." Over to you, dear reader. If you have a cache of old radio tapes, which could contain a lost treasure, email treasurehunt@radiotimes.com. Read more: Martha Kearney on leaving Today: 'There's no radio programme quite like it' Banker-turned-comedian Stuart Mitchell questions the value of chasing wealth Check out more of our Radio coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Archers’ villain Rob Titchener is dead – should fans be celebrating?
Finally, it has happened. Helen Archer is rid of her tormenter after hearing from Miles Titchener that his brother Rob died at 9.09pm on Saturday night. There have been a fair number of villains and rogues in Ambridge over the years — Matt Crawford, Cameron Fraser, Simon Pemberton – but none have caught the imagination in the way that the manipulative, abusive Rob Titchener did. He arrived in Ambridge in 2013 and began an affair with Helen not long after. That love story soon turned into a long-running tale of coercive control and domestic abuse, as Rob alienated Helen from her friends and family. The troubling storyline culminated in 2016 with Helen being arrested for stabbing Rob with a kitchen knife, following an explosive confrontation when she tried to leave him. Villagers were shocked to learn the full extent of the abuse during Helen’s trial, while Rob continued to manipulate people with his version of events. Helen was eventually cleared of attempted murder and, now a pariah in Ambridge, Rob fled to the States. The storyline had been developed with domestic abuse charities and was widely praised for raising awareness of the issue of coercive control — MPs referenced the story during the creation of new legislation to criminalise this form of abuse, and the National Domestic Abuse Helpline saw an increase in the number of calls it received. Fans took the story to heart, with Timothy Watson, the actor who played Rob, finding himself on the receiving end of nasty vitriol. He was booed on stage at the Radio Times Festival in 2015 and had to quit social media to avoid abuse. When Rob reappeared in The Archers earlier this year, in an attempt to gain access to his biological son, Jack, it seemed as if the nightmare was beginning all over for Helen. Instead, we soon discovered that Rob had an inoperable brain tumour and seeing his son was his dying wish. The storyline has been neatly balanced between eliciting sympathy for an unsympathetic character and raising suspicions that everything this sick man is doing is manipulative. He’s managed to divide the village with his request to be baptised, with the Archer family withdrawing donations to the church in response to the vicar helping him, and I wonder whether his malign influence will linger after his death. During his final two episodes, which were superbly played two-handers with Helen visiting Rob on his deathbed, he pleaded with Helen to smother him with his pillow, to end his suffering. Will this come back to haunt Helen in some way? On hearing of Rob’s death, Helen said she didn’t know whether to cry, laugh or throw up. Archers fans may be feeling the same way – a nasty villain is dead, but it’s the end of one of the most gripping stories there has been in the programme’s long history. And what of the man who was Rob? You can read Libby Purves’s interview with Timothy Watson in this week’s issue of Radio Times magazine, on sale Tuesday 21st November. The Archers is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 7pm Sundays to Fridays, with an Omnibus edition on Sundays at 10am, and is available to listen on BBC Sounds. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now and celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who with a special issue of Radio Times. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
"I sometimes wish I could just be a voice": Rosamund Pike on her new podcast drama and her love for audio
Pike plays a woman whose past catches up to her in a new audio drama based on the novel by Kim Hooper.
Two thousand seven hundred and sixty three people died in New York on 9/11. Yet within that official statistic are a number of people who disappeared on that day and whose remains have never been found. That mysterious gap in knowledge is the basis for Kim Hooper’s novel People Who Knew Me, in which New Yorker Emily uses the horror of those murderous attacks as an opportunity to flee a difficult family situation and set up a new life in California as Connie Pryne, bringing up a daughter, Claire, on her own. Yet 14 years later, when she receives a cancer diagnosis, she realises she must confront the life she ran away from, if only for the sake of Claire. Now the book has been dramatised by theatre writer Daniella Issacs and Sharon Horgan’s Merman Pictures as a podcast for BBC Radio 4, starring Oscar-nominated actor Rosamund Pike and Hugh Laurie. Speaking to Radio Times, Pike was unequivocal about what drew her to the role of Emily/Connie. "I’m interested in lying: characters who don’t tell the truth or manipulate the truth are extremely interesting to play - think Amy Dunne (Gone Girl) or Marla Grayson (I Care a Lot). The idea of someone using the National Tragedy of 9/11 to fake their own death, and escape one lie, only to find themselves supporting a much more intricate web of lies was very compelling. I am interested in the ways lies gather energy - which inevitably, sooner or later, becomes too strong to contain." The writer Isaacs concurs with that view about the appeal of the story: "I’ve always had a fascination with the spectrum of truth and lies. I was thinking as I was writing it about what makes people lie. We all lie. I lie. But the way [Connie] struggles through her lie is to never be the bad guy. [She’s not really bad] she’s a messy woman responding to a messy world." It’s that compassion for Connie/Emily and Isaacs’s empathetic treatment of the situation that resonated with Pike. She enthused: "[Daniella] wrote these scripts beautifully; and that’s why, although what [Emily] does is deplorable, we understand it, and we feel the mess it creates, and the terrible burden it imposes on her." So while Emily/Connie can be grouped with previous duplicitous Pike characters such as Amy Dunne and Maria Grayson, the actor is keen to emphasise that the experience of playing those famed manipulators didn’t inform how she approached playing this role. "Emily/Connie is not a killer. She is also far more of a coward than Amy Dunne. It is cowardice that traps Emily in the first place, the cowardice of not being able to come clean and take responsibility for her own behaviour. Amy is a narcissistic sociopath. I don’t think Emily/Connie is either of these things. She does something that has a devastating impact on other people. Those people may never be able to trust again, but she is not a sociopath." Although she can relate, to a certain degree, with how Emily reacts to the problems in her life, the idea of living a lie to get away from a difficult situation is not one that Pike would personally ever consider. In what could almost be a mantra, she says, "I have learnt that telling the truth always frees you." Isaacs, by contrast, hints at a darker side to her personality when discussing the appeal of writing about Emily/Connie and the effect of her decision on those around her: "I fear this makes me sound like a psychopath, but I enjoy writing characters that transgress what is societally acceptable. Because I’m constantly suppressing things to be acceptable, perhaps writing about these things helps me not do them." But both women readily agree that adapting Hooper’s novel as an audio drama was an opportunity to get deeper into the character of Emily/Connie at two stages of her life, as a recent graduate starting out on a romance and then years later in Los Angeles, when she’s looking back on what she did to escape from New York and the consequences of her actions. Isaacs says, "I was really excited… for two reasons. Firstly for allowing us as listeners to immerse ourselves into her psyche, more than could be done by watching her. And I liked the idea of eavesdropping on conversations. I wanted to make it as real as possible." Pike adds: "As this is audio, I can play both Emily in her 20s in New York and Connie in her 40s in LA - both her identities, the real and the reconstructed; and there is a third character, Connie’s internal voice, the voice that cannot lie…" Isaacs also directed the drama and the way she recorded, eschewing the traditional radio drama set-up of actors in front of microphone stands, scripts in hand, in favour of the actors wearing headset mics and using tablets for scripts so they could be mobile and as naturalistic as possible, was something that Pike enjoyed: "Daniella embraced the messiness of real life through the audio - she wanted to hear mouth noises, sniffs, chewing, snivelling, breathing, catches of emotion, voice cracking – all the things engineers often try to iron out. She encouraged us to play and live the scenes, physicality was a huge key - you hear physicality in the voice, if the character is moving, bending, sitting or standing, eating, driving, taking a shower - you hear it all. It certainly was [liberating]." It may seem odd that, at a time widely hailed as a golden age for TV, an acclaimed screen actor is recording a radio drama – often shoestring productions put together quickly – but Pike has appeared in a few audio plays and narrated podcasts in recent years, and her switch to audio is by no means a result of restrictions on filming caused by COVID. She’s adamant that audio holds a special place in her heart: "I love this medium. I’ve been a dedicated listener of audiobooks since I was a child. I sometimes wish I could just be a voice… I love the free rein the imagination gets with audio only… and I love not having to be seen!" That’s borne out by the other recent projects she’s done: the scripted comedy podcast Edith! about the wife of president Woodrow Wilson who, when he had a stroke, hid it from the American public and basically ran the White House while her husband was in a coma. "Another liar!" notes Pike. Then there’s the Audible documentary podcast Mother, Neighbor, Russian Spy, which she narrated — it’s been so successful it has inspired her to work on developing another documentary series. And finally, she’s read the audiobook for the third book in the Wheel of Time series, The Dragon Reborn (available on MacMillan Audio now), another project that enthuses her. "It is fun to be recording the book series at the same time as playing Moiraine in the television series. And it’s many, many hours in the recording studio!" If you enjoy People Who Knew Me, Daniella Isaacs leaves us with a tempting thought, "I hope to collaborate with Rosamund on other things. [She was] really supportive; passionate, open and playful." People Who Knew Me is available now on BBC Sounds and begins airing on BBC Radio 4 at 10.45pm tonight (Monday, 26th June). For more news, interviews and features, visit our Drama hub, or find something to watch now with our TV Guide and Streaming Guide. Take part in the Screen Test, a project from Radio Times and the Universities of Sussex and Brighton, to explore the role of television and audio in our lives. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only £1 with delivery to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Circled in the Radio Times theatre review: A heart-warming, nostalgic piece of storytelling ★★★
Writer John Osborne tells the story of his grandfather's life through the television programmes he highlighted in the Radio Times
It’s a weekly ritual for many readers. Leafing through the new copy of the Radio Times and highlighting the shows they want to watch. But, if you had a collection of all their past issues, what could you tell about a person’s life from what they have put a ring around? Writer John Osborne (who I imagine lives with the weary refrain, “No, not that one”) answers that question in this evocative and nostalgic one-man show that not only delights in the ability of TV to bring us closer together but also stands as a gentle exploration of grief and loss. The story begins with John receiving a phone call from a woman called Daniella, who lives in the town where his late grandfather lived all his life. She has some of his granddad’s possessions, would John like to come and collect them? Soon John is in the shed at the bottom of Daniella’s garden, mesmerised by a collection of Radio Times, which stretched back to the early 80s, each issue with shows highlighted in the cheap biros his granddad took from the bookie’s. As John’s fond memories of childhood days perched on his granddad’s armchair watching TV mix with his exploration of the RT collection, we learn more of his granddad’s life — why Inspector Morse was always marked with a heart, why the crossword is filled in a mix of capital and lower case letters, and why for a few weeks game shows and entertainment programmes are circled in angry red pen. There’s a depth of emotion that wells up through the slightly shambolic show, but that is undercut by wry observations on Radio Times and television in general. Just how many times have we put the Queen Mother on the cover? Who on earth watched Talking Telephone Numbers with Phillip Schofield and Emma Forbes? And it’s reassuring to hear a reader’s letter from 1985 railing against The Archers scriptwriters trying to introduce “modern” storylines. Plus ca change. If you can mark your life through the TV shows you’ve watched, then this charming, heartfelt show will resonate strongly with you. But one mystery remains, what possessed John’s granddad to buy TV Quick one week in the 90s? That’s the one question John feels unable to answer. Circled in the Radio Times is at Brighton Fringe until 29 May Book theatre tickets through Radio Times Box Office
Horrible Histories theatre review: Best of Barmy Britain is a riotous romp through our past
The best bits from the critically acclaimed Barmy Britain shows make for a barnstorming afternoon
The Horrible Histories team can do no wrong. Starting from Terry Deary's books, through the TV series and on to the stage shows, the unique mix of trivia, silly humour and historical facts is a winning formula that receives almost universal adulation. So much so that after three separate stage shows about "Barmy Britain" — which have been around for five years in the West End — long-time HH collaborators the Birmingham Stage Company can produce a 70-minute highlights package with just two actors and it is still a brilliant watch. We start with the Roman invasion of Britain and Boudicca's rebellion, with a sing-along to We Will Smash You (to the tune of Queen's We Will Rock You), and the show continues in a similar, high-energy vein for the rest of the hour or so. There's a very funny skit about the Magna Carta, with a childlike King John; a brave young audience member dragged on stage to help explain the various demented remedies suggested for the Black Death — he did look scared at the thought it would be whipped out of him — while the Great Fire of London is reimagined as a catastrophe in the Bake Off tent on a par with someone taking your baked alaska out of the fridge. Book tickets for The Best of Barmy Britain from the Radio Times box office While the jokes and songs are excellent, it's really the two stars of the show, Neal Foster (who also co-wrote the show with Terry Deary, and directs) and Alison Fitzjohn that really make it spectacular. Despite having to carry off recounting the whole of British history, their energy means the pace never slackens even during the many costume changes. And the rapport between the two is evident; while Foster tries to make Fitzjohn corpse during King John's death scene, she's quick to point out when he does the wrong funny voice in the Black Death sketch. Kids will love the traditional Horrible Histories jokes about bodily functions and gore, but there is a lot for adults to enjoy too — not least the incongruous sight of a song and dance about the Edinburgh bodysnatchers Burke and Hare to the sound of the Postman Pat theme tune. There is also a surprising amount of politics — it's quite clear what Terry Deary and Neal Foster think about Brexit — with a joke about a referendum not being a good way to decide anything as, "you may not get the decision you want", and Theresa May being portrayed as a bold Boudicca left on her own to sort out others' mess. It seems Barmy Britain could run and run... Horrible Histories: The Best of Barmy Britain is at the Apollo Theatre until 3 September Book tickets for The Best of Barmy Britain from the Radio Times box office
History's far from horrible at Warwick Castle
New "knights" accommodation turns an action-packed visit to the home of the Horrible Histories Maze into a relaxing (and much better value) stay
Warwick Castle has played a pivotal role in much of British history, from the Vikings through the Norman conquest to the Wars of the Roses. It's also been owned by a rich cast of characters, from Ethelfleda, the Mercian queen who first built fortifications on the site in 914 AD, to William the Conqueror, Richard III and Warwick the Kingmaker (fans of the recent Hollow Crown may remember his role in the Wars of the Roses). It's now owned by Merlin. Merlin Entertainment, that is, the conglomerate behind theme parks such as Thorpe Park and Legoland, who have turned the castle into a sort of Historyland — history done by Disney. But not the sanitised, saccharine Disney, more the entertaining, kids-love-it Disney. As well as the traditional castle entertainments of counting the steps on the vertiginous walk along the ramparts (500+) and running up the mound to the site of the original Norman motte and bailey, children are delighted by the free displays of jousting, archery, birds of prey, and the chance to train with a sword in the knight's school. Then there's the demonstration of the castle's mighty trebuchet (allegedly the world's largest catapult) shooting a flaming fireball 150 metres into the air — go for the last show of the day for a fitting finale to your visit. New for this year are a couple of Horrible Histories attractions, which fit neatly in with the castle's established mix of entertaining, gruesome education. Head straight to the disorientating Horrible Histories Maze, where the object is not to find the centre and get out again, but to visit different eras of history, collecting stamps on your Time Passport as you go, and then get out again. To reveal too much would be to spoil the point of the maze, but it's scattered with typically gruesome HH facts, fun interactive elements and bewildered parents wondering how to get from the Tudor period to the First World War. Even the exit is fun. Follow that with a bit of a sit down at the Horrible Histories stage show, a high-energy, two-man act that tells the history of Warwick Castle in trademark irreverent style. Grown-ups probably get more out of it than children (I'm not sure how many five-year-olds will appreciate the references to Location Location Location, David Dickinson and one of the funniest impersonations of Keith Lemon I've seen), but there are enough silly gags and songs to keep them laughing and clapping along. In short, there is a wealth of things to do at Warwick — I haven't even mentioned the displays, exhibitions and interiors of the castle itself. But all this entertainment does not come cheap. For a family of four paying at the gate, a day ticket costs £84.20; book at least five in advance and that is reduced to £17.60 per person (children aged 2 and under go free). And that's before you factor in the exorbitant cost of the on-site food concessions (top tip: bring a picnic to enjoy in the Capability Brown landscaped grounds — avoiding any hungry peacocks or swooping birds of prey). Given that it is quite a stretch to fit in everything within the opening times (10am—5pm all year round), it makes sense to turn a one-day visit into a two-day break with an overnight stay in the Knights Village accommodation, set in a wooded glade a short walk from the castle. You can choose from a bit of "Medieval Glamping" in a themed bell tent, complete with wooden floor, double bed, two singles, wifi and two power points (themes are basic medieval, luxury kings, and pink princess); or you can opt for a bit more comfort — no midnight dash to the toilet block — with one of the new lodges. They come in two sizes: the bijou Woodland, a semi-detached lodge with a double bedroom, a kids' room with bunk bed, and an ensuite; or the grand Knight, which is similar to the Woodland, but spread out over a ground and mezzanine floor, with an extra sofa bed meaning you can sleep up to seven rather than five (if you include a cot bed for a nipper). The Woodland lodges may be compact — look out for the weirdly small cupboard with hangers that hasn't enough room to hang anything — but they are very cosy and comfortable, and come with mod-cons. Who would expect cable TV and wifi in a woodland lodge? The early evening resounds to the noise of youngsters recreating the knightly battles they've seen during the day, chasing each other through the glade while their parents relax on the porch of their lodges enjoying the complimentary tea, or a refreshing glass of something. Between 6.30 and 8.30 each evening, exclusively for guests staying in the Knights Village, there is have-a-go archery, knights' school and jester school — with all the costumed instructors offering patient, affable guidance to pupils of all ages. For £7.50 extra per person, you can also take part in the birds of prey experience, which basically involves a falconer guiding one of their charges (either a kestrel or falcon) to fly to your gauntleted hand. It's your chance to play at Kes — minus the brutality. A cooked or continental breakfast is included in the price of your stay, served in the onsite "Medieval Banqueting Hall". But if you want, you can also enjoy an all-you-can eat buffet dinner in the hall, for £18.95 per adult and £9.95 per child. Though don't expect a medieval hog roast and flagons of mead, the hall is more a stylised refectory in reality, serving typical mass catering fare. But it will definitely fill you up. If you want to book a table, go for the early 5.15pm slot, which will mean you can enjoy the full two hours of the evening entertainment before retiring to your tent or lodge. The glade may be filled with the noise of rampant children during the early evening, but as night falls it turns into an idyll illuminated by a star-filled sky and the soft glow of lights from the glamping tents. Sitting outside staring at the night sky offers the perfect antidote to the excitement of the day. If you take into the account the price of a day ticket to the castle, the prices of the accommodation offer excellent value (you get two days' access to the castle included). Glamping starts from £37.50 per person per night (based on up to four sharing) and the lodges start from £40 (based on up to five sharing). So if you want to give the kids a treat at the weekend, you could do worse than a stay at Warwick. It makes that horrible history a delight. You might also like.... 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Strictly Prom review: "As dazzling as the dancing was, it didn’t outshine the orchestra"
Last night Katie Derham and six Strictly Come Dancing pros danced up a storm at the Royal Albert Hall
Yes, there is a glitterball hanging from the ceiling of the Royal Albert Hall. The traditionalists who squawked with outrage when they first heard of the Strictly Prom — or Prom 8 (b minor) as they’d prefer to call it — will be spitting marabou feathers at the thought. But if you want to widen the opportunities for people to engage with the Proms — as new Proms director David Pickard wishes — it can’t all be modernist music in concrete car parks in Peckham (see Proms at... Bold Tendencies Multi-Storey Car Park). You have to embrace the populist. And what could be more popular than BBC1’s Saturday night ratings-winner Strictly Come Dancing? Giovanni Pernice, Janette Manrara, Kevin Clifton, Aljaz Skorjanec and Joanne Clifton dance at the Strictly Prom Does this mean that the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Gavin Sutherland were slathered in fake tan and clothed in sequins? Not quite. The Prom may use the Strictly brand but it’s no shiny-floor show. Yes, there is dancing, from Strictly professionals Joanne Clifton, Giovanni Pernice, Janette Manrara, Aljaz Skorjanec, Karen Clifton and Kevin Clifton, alongside host and 2015 finalist Katie Derham — yet it does not take precedence over the music. If you were expecting two hours of hot footwork, you were always going to be disappointed. The point of the concert is to illustrate how classical music has been inspired by dance music, and how dance can bend different forms to its own devices. So while you’d expect to hear the music of the Strauss family in connection with the waltz, and Johann II’s Fledermaus overture does feature, it’s more unexpected music that accompanies the dancing of two waltzes. Erik Satie’s lyrically melancholy Gymnopédie No 1 was the backing for a beautiful slow waltz by Joanne Clifton and Giovanni Pernice, while Katie Derham and Aljaz’s spectacular Viennese was accompanied by an arrangement of Elvis Presley’s closing number from his 68 Comeback Special, If I Can Dream. It was quite a varied programme. Katie Derham and Aljaz Skorjanec dance at the Strictly Prom There were huge, crowd-pleasing moments, from the opening when the rousing overture to Jule Styne’s musical Gypsy saw the dancers take to what looked like a rather small stage space in front of the orchestra from all around the auditorium, to a celebratory finale that saw all the dancers on stage performing to a medley from Irving Berlin’s Top Hat and an explosion of confetti raining down from the ceiling. The biggest audience reaction, and the closest the night came to fulfilling Katie Derham’s hope that there would be dancing in the aisles, was when Karen and Kevin Clifton performed a scintillating samba to Ary Barroso’s irresistibly catchy Aquarela do Brasil. You may not recognise the name, but you’ll recognise the tune – think of a samba tune and Aquarela is what’s in your head. Perhaps there wasn't dancing among the audience because this crowd of prommers seemed transfixed by the music. Which must surely prove the worth of the concert. Yes, people turned out because of the Strictly brand, and Katie Derham kept reminding us of the link with amusing anecdotes from her time on the show, but ultimately it was for the music they stayed. As dazzling as the dancing was, it didn’t outshine the playing of the orchestra — not even the glitterball could do that. While it may not have been the most complex or demanding of programmes, you can only say to those audience members for whom this was an introduction to the world’s greatest festival of classical music, “Keeeeep Promming!” You can listen to the Strictly Prom and all this week's Proms on the BBC website Win tickets to the John Wilson Prom. Wilson and his orchestra are among the Proms’ sell out stars. We have two tickets to give away to his concert on Saturday August 13 celebrating the music of George and Ira Gershwin. Click here to enter Radio Times Travel offer Andrea Bocelli at the O2, from £85pp including return coach travel. Don't miss your chance to see Andrea Bocelli perform at a very special UK concert at The O2 Arena, London this autumn. It promises to be an evening of timeless music, love songs and the best-loved music from the movies. Read more and book.
UK’s Best Part-Time Band is basically BBC4 does Britain’s Got Talent
The Beeb’s new music show tries to be worthy but is just another talent competition, says David Crawford
BBC4 does have form when it comes to talent shows. Although outside the rarefied world of the Cardiff Singer of the World and Young Musician competitions, this new series has more in common with a Simon Cowell-helmed talent pool dredge. But instead of a young hairdresser from Pontypool dreaming of Cowell turning her into the next Beyoncé, we have her granddad in a band that supported the Who. And because this is BBC4, there is no huge cash prize, recording contract or opportunity to perform in front of the royal family. As host Rhod Gilbert tells us gleefully, the winner will get “F*** all!” In common with the Cowell juggernauts, for the auditions Gilbert travels around the country in a battered Transit van (so not much in common with Simon there) hearing bands who play together once they’ve finished their day jobs. The best five get to perform in regional heats, where two are put through to the final. This week he’s accompanied by Midge Ure on an epic road trip to judge bands in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Along the way they hear Scottish ska, Irish bluegrass and Welsh rock from the aforementioned band that supported the Who in 1966 —Rhod jokes they have a combined age of 850. That’s one of the winning aspects of the series, the irreverent humour of not just Rhod, but also Midge Ure (surely he’s too arty and pretentious in a mac, trilby and wispy moustache to joke around?) and the musicians they meet. As none of them rely on their music for their wages, the bands all have a fun-loving approach to it. There are no artful musos here — sorry Midge. It’s the bonhomie, passion and musicianship that Rhod and Midge find among bands that can’t make a decent living from music that leads the latter to rant about the wider industry being “hijacked by…mediocrity”. Are you listening, Mr Cowell? Yet, in common with Mr Cowell, this series is turning art into a competition — trying to pit the subjective judgements of Midge Ure, Peter Hook and Jazzie B against each other. In later episodes you’ll be able to guess at least one of the bands Hooky and Jazzie put through to the final, just based on their musical heritage. And its short run suggests it’s not that interested in being a decent showcase of the sort of bands who play the back room at your local pub. And finally, if you do think Vienna is the height of 80s indulgent twaddle about nothing — does it mean nothing to you? — Midge reveals the rather banal meaning behind the lyrics. That’s pop gold, right there. UK's Best Part-Time Band starts tonight at 9pm on BBC4
How did author Kate Atkinson help create new Shonda Rhimes drama The Catch?
Mireille Enos and Peter Krause star in the latest drama from the ShondaLand stable
There is an enigma at the heart of this new, flashy US crime drama. That it’s flashy should be no surprise as it comes from the same Shonda Rhimes stable as those slick big-hitters Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy. It has all the quick editing, shiny buildings and over-reliance on a pop soundtrack as you’d expect. But what is unusual is that, nestling in the end credits, is the name Kate Atkinson. Yes, Kate Atkinson the award-winning novelist, whose books such as Behind the Scenes of the Museum and Life after Life feature dazzling literary tricks and nuanced explorations of the human condition. She’s also the creator of the doughty Yorkshire detective Jackson Brodie, who seems as far away from the glamorous LA world portrayed in The Catch as it’s possible to be. So why is Atkinson’s name there? Well, it seems that she wrote the treatment for the series – and fans of the Brodie books will notice a similarity between the story and a plotline in When Will There Be Good News. So is Kate swapping books for the glossy world of television? I hope not as I’d prefer her to keep writing her brilliant novels. That’s not to be sniffy about The Catch — which is fun — but it’s a bit of an odd match. The series starts with what is becoming the ubiquitous “James Bond” pre-credits opening, in which we’re introduced to the hero, top LA private detective Alice Vaughan (played by star of The Killing USA Mireille Enos), as she demonstrates why she’s so good at her job — catching a conman trying to steal a Renoir painting from an art gallery. But soon we’re into the meat of the action, following Alice as she tries to ensnare the super-smart fraudster Mr X (Six Feet Under’s Peter Krause), who has been targeting Alice’s clients, taunting her all the while. It’s this game of cat-and-mouse that plays out over the series, but much like Tom and Jerry this is a relationship of co-dependency and mutual loathing/love. No sooner has Alice stepped on a rake than she’s seasoning Mr X for the pot. All the while this is going on, Alice’s partner at the agency is trying to get her to focus on her upcoming wedding to her super-smart fiancé. And we soon see that Mr X is closer to her than she thinks… The Catch is glossy entertainment at its finest, but Enos and Krause are good enough actors to suggest at the inner emotional turmoil of their characters and add a bit of depth beneath the Shondaland sheen. The Catch begins tonight at 10pm on Sky Living
Is Dogs Might Fly the daftest talent show of all time?
"Jamie Theakston looks as if he’s trying hard not to laugh when he announces, 'We’re going to teach a dog to fly a plane!'" writes David Crawford
It’s a question as vital as whether the UK should remain in the EU: could a dog be trained to fly an aeroplane? What do you mean you’ve never thought about it before. Well, Sky1 is here to set the record straight with a new reality show that sounds as if it were dreamt up by a deranged Alan Partridge brandishing a round of cheese. Never mind the stilton, smell the damp dog. Constructed like a talent show (The Rex Factor?), abandoned and stray dogs at rescue centres around the country are auditioned by pooch behaviour expert Victoria Sitwell, dog scientist Adam Miklosi and animal trainer Charlotte Wilde. We’ll call them the judges. The judges then decide which four dogs they’d each like on their teams, to fight for one of three places at “flight school”, where genius/bonkers animal psychologist Mark Vette will train the three remaining “contestants” how to pilot a single seater plane. He’s already taught a dog to drive a car, so he has form. The show, presented by Jamie Theakston – no longer the bounding pup, but still a faithful retriever — has good intentions about highlighting the increasing problem of abandoned dogs. We’re told that each year over 120,000 end up at rescue centres, and how the overbreeding of staffordshire bull terriers has become a particular problem. Each of the dogs chosen by the judges will be housed with a “loving family” once the series is over, and the judges are visibly upset at being only able to take four each, leaving many others to languish in the rescue centres. In subsequent episodes we’re promised tests that will reveal the science behind canine behavior and the judges are strong on explaining the subtle negotiations needed to train a dog. But always in the back of your mind is the voice saying, “But you’re training a dog to fly a plane!” So when one of the judges says, “dogs have such potential, people don’t know what they’re missing,” all you can think is, “They’re missing a dog that can fly a plane?” That will help getting to the supermarket on a Saturday morning. Though I suppose they would make excellent guard dogs — what burglar would want to be dive-bombed by a shih tzu in a Piper twin prop? Last Saturday, Radio 4 broadcast an interview with Wendy Hillings, who’s disabled and has relied for years on her carer, a golden retriever called Teddy, to help keep her alive and well. It may be invidious to compare the output of Radio 4 and Sky1, but you can’t help feeling that it would have been sufficient of a talent show “journey” to take skittish rescue dogs and train them to look after disabled people. If not more fun, it’s definitely more heartening. And if not for the dogs, do it for the presenter. Poor old Jamie Theakston looks as if he’s trying hard not to laugh when he announces, “We’re going to teach a dog to fly a plane!” The fake situation is summed up by the fate of lively chihuahua Short Stuff, who’s biddable and trainable, but can’t take part as he’s, er, too short. It’s like Simon Cowell telling a fantastic singer they’re not through to the next round because they’re too fat. Back in your cage, Short Stuff. What you have to ask yourself is, do we need another talent show? Or rather, do we need a talent show in which rescue dogs compete to see if they could fly a plane? I know my answer. Dogs Might Fly starts on Sunday at 7pm on Sky1
Professor Green: Hidden and Homeless: "I have less hope now than when I started"
The rapper's latest film is a sobering look at the plight of the young homeless
Professor Green appears to be living a double life on our TV screens. On Friday nights he’s the hyped-up judge of Channel 5’s cheesy Lip Sync Battle UK, but weeknights he prefers to front sobering documentaries for the BBC, like last autumn’s Suicide and Me, in which he explored the reasons why his dad killed himself and why suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50. Presumably on the strength of that, he’s now presenting two new docs for BBC3. One on dangerous dogs can be seen after the channel moves online, but on Tuesday night he starts with an immersive examination of the phenomenon of youth homelessness. Getting to the human truth behind the statistics — the latest estimates suggest that three times as many young people experience homelessness every year than official figures state — Professor Green gets to know a number of people who are or who have been homeless. The “hidden” in the title refers to the fact that many young people are not counted as homeless in statistics as they are sofa surfing or staying with friends. But as Dionne Warwick sang, “A House Is Not a Home.” It’s hard to hold down a job if you have no permanent address. But most affecting is the time Green spends with Luke, a young rough sleeper in Manchester, who spends his nights endlessly walking the city centre while struggling with an addiction to “spice”, legal highs of synthetic cannabis, which seem to have the effects of much harder illegal drugs. He alternates between paranoia and bravado, as he in turn threatens a shopkeeper who refuses to sell him “spice” and then, when high, takes to stopping traffic in the middle of the road. At times the film does seem like a government health warning about the dangers of legal highs, they appear to be increasingly the crutch that young homeless people are using to cope with the awfulness of their situations, definitely more than alcohol. Green is an open, honest interviewer who acts almost like an older brother to Luke, chiding him for smoking too much spice and acting idiotically. The shock on his face at some of the more dreadful stories he hears, as well as his easy ability to connect with most people, pull you into feeling the plight of the young fighting to find a place to call their own. It’s not all downbeat. He also meets Soceena, who is in a women’s hostel in London where she has learnt catering skills, and is preparing to move into her own flat, with the hostel’s continuing support. The underlying messages are there throughout. Young people are becoming increasingly homeless thanks to exorbitantly priced properties, while government cuts mean that homeless people who do move into flats or hostels are struggling to get the support they need to stop them ending back on the streets. After an upsetting final scene involving Luke, Green concludes, “I wouldn't say I have any more hope now than when I started. If anything, less.” You may agree. Professor Green: Hidden and Homeless is on BBC3 on Tuesday 9th February at 9pm
Ten Pieces Prom review: "What the BBC does best"
The culmination of a year-long initiative to get young children interested in classical music was an inspirational spectacular
This is a Prom like no other. A troll stalks through the audience throughout the concert, cackling witches wheel and whirl their way across the stage, a phoenix soars around the Royal Albert Hall auditorium and Dick and Dom crash spacecrafts into the Hall. There's also the utterance of the unforgettable line — surely never before heard at a Prom — "Shall we show Dick how to blow a raspberry?" It's a head-spinning multi-media spectacular that acts as a climax to the BBC's worthy year-long Ten Pieces initiative to get primary school children enthused about classical music by introducing them to ten easily accessible pieces of music (more on them later). The pieces are played here by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under conductor Thomas Sondergard, which was also the orchestra that featured in the BBC's Ten Pieces film that launched the initiative. The music may be the focus, but to keep young minds from wandering each piece is introduced by a team of boundlessly energetic CBBC stars: Barney Harwood, Dick and Dom, Dan Starkey (Wizards v Aliens) and Molly Rainford (from Friday Download) — oh, and that troll. Their energy helps build the enthusiastic response to the music: imagine a concert hall reverberating to the sound of a packed audience singing the first eight notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. But the real stars of the show are the children who were inspired by Ten Pieces to produce their own music, some of whom get the rare privilege of being invited on to the Royal Albert Hall stage to perform. First up is 11-year-old Evelyn and her school friends Emma and Sophie from St Mary's Primary School in Maguiresbridge, Fermanagh, whose composition Equinox is a violin-led piece that wears its inspiration from Beethoven's Fifth lightly. Just as inspiring as the music is to hear Evelyn talk about how she picked out Beethoven's motifs and pizzicatos for her own piece. The next contribution from schoolchildren really sends a shiver up the spine, as hundreds of kids from Hampshire and Wandsworth combine to form the Ten Pieces Children's Choir and sing the heck out of Handel's Zadok the Priest (you know, the one ITV used as their Champions League theme and the one George II had played at his coronation). It may not be their own work, but they still deserve special recognition for making such a joyous chorus. Then the pupils of Chase Bridge Primary School, Twickenham, file on stage with glockenspiel, bongo and big bass drum (plus strings and woodwind) to play their composition, Volcano, which is inspired by the story of Peer Gynt being chased in the Hall of the Mountain King — though in their piece, it's villagers fleeing an erupting volcano. That big bass drum gets a good workout as the volcano rumbles. In a non-musical performance 12 pupils from St Joseph's College, Ipswich, take to the stage in front of the orchestra to perform an entrancing interpretative dance to Benjamin Britten's Storm Interlude from his opera Peter Grimes. Dressed all in blue, the boys made it seem as if the sea had washed into the Royal Albert Hall. The finale of the children's performances is left to the pupils of Wythcombe Raleigh CE Primary School, Exmouth, who drag on stage water butts, broomsticks, bicycle wheels and other bits of junk salvaged from a local dump to play their composition, Wythcombe Stomp, a percussive piece that wowed the audience. Talking of percussive pieces, special mention has to go to the innovative staging of Anna Meredith's Connect It, in which dancers from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire swooped among the prommers on the floor for a kinetic performance of a piece that uses no musical instruments, just the dancers' breaths, body slaps and movements to create a hypnotic sound. When Meredith stepped on stage herself and encouraged the whole audience to get involved, it certainly proved entertaining though some concert-goers of, ahem, a certain age may have found it hard to keep up. Throughout the concert, as the prommers delighted at the music — which also included Holst's Mars from the Planets Suite, John Adam's Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Mussorgsky's Night on a Bare Mountain, Mozart's Horn Concert no 4, and Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt — we were also held rapt by the screens showing school children's art, animations and dances inspired by the pieces. If there are any gripes, it's at times the multi-media show was too busy; you wanted to watch the St Joseph boys dancing to Peter Grimes but also felt you should be watching the screen at the same time to see others' interpretations, and my seven-year-old son felt In the Hall of the Mountain King was almost inaudible for the noise of children shouting, "TROLL!!" But when the soaring music of the final piece, Stravinsky's Firebird, is accompanied by its own beautiful puppet of a phoenix that swooped and soared over the heads of the audience then all can be forgiven. The Prom was a great mixture of the ideals espoused by both Henry Wood and Lord Reith — it brought classical music to a new audience in an entertaining, educational and informative way — and is a shining example of what the BBC does best. It's heartening to know the Ten Pieces initiative is being extended to secondary school children for the following year — I can't wait for next year's Prom! Highlights from this year's Ten Pieces Prom are broadcast on CBBC at 9.30am on Sunday 2nd August and the Radio 3 broadcast of the full Prom is available on BBC iPlayer until 18th August.
The Brink review: "Despite its near-the-knuckle bravado, the humour is often clunkingly old-fashioned"
HBO's new political satire starring Jack Black and Tim Robbins lacks the wit or subtlety of its acclaimed predecessors
Meet the main characters in this comedy from Weeds exec producer Roberto Benabib and his novelist brother Kim. An alcoholic, perverted Secretary of State (Tim Robbins), a hopped-up, drug-dealing jet fighter pilot (Orange Is the New Black’s Pablo Schrieber), and a sex-crazed, dope-smoking diplomat at the US embassy in Islamabad (Jack Black). Spot a theme? It’s lewd and crude all the way. The episode begins with the Secretary of State tied up naked on a hotel bed, with a Cambodian prostitute suffocating him. From there no depth is left unplumbed. When asked by his aide if he’d read some briefing documents, the Secretary replies, “Unless they were encrypted on the vaginal walls of an Asian call girl, no.” Though it’s from the same HBO stable as edgy, sweary comedies Curb Your Enthusiasm and Veep, The Brink has none of their wit or subtlety. Oh look, that pilot has popped the wrong pill while flying a highly sensitive mission and is tripping out at the controls of a heavily armed supersonic jet. Hilarious. The plot revolves around a coup in Pakistan, after which the psychotic new military leader, General Umair Zaman, is calling for the end of US drone flights over his country, because he believes they are making Pakistanis infertile. Not because they’re blowing them up, but because of some strange technology he ascribes to a Zionist plot. As a consequence he wants to nuke Israel. The most shocking thing is that Zaman is played by Iqbal Theba, the lovely Principal Figgis from Glee. I suppose having to endlessly listen to Journey covers is enough to send anyone psychotic and want to start blowing things up. The coup sees Jack Black locked out of the embassy during a riotous demonstration and taking shelter at the home of his driver’s family, and Tim Robbins stuck in the White House Situation Room trying to hold off hawkish generals wanting to launch a pre-emptive strike against Pakistan, while nursing a terrible hangover. The scenes in the Situation Room are the best and most nuanced, and also highlight the show’s covert message: sex and booze and drugs are for the good guys; abstinence is for the bad guys. Incendiary stuff, but despite its near-the-knuckle bravado, the humour is often clunkingly old-fashioned. Witness the Pakistani family (including Meera Syal) arguing in Urdu over whether to turn in Jack Black as a CIA agent, then telling him sweetly, “We were just discussing how much we admire US foreign policy.” All the leads give fine performances: Jack Black is Jack Black; Pablo Schrieber is edginess personified; and Tim Robbins exudes a sleazy, liberal charm. But the script does not match their efforts. Stay away from The Brink. The Brink continues on Mondays at 10.10pm on Sky Atlantic
Mark Steel: David Cameron's Chipping Norton is full of lovely people
As his award-winning Radio 4 show returns, the comedian reveals why he's as rude as possible and meets a pool-playing dog
Interviewing a famously left-wing comedian two days after an election that returned the first Conservative majority government in 18 years is not likely to be an upbeat affair. It doesn’t begin well. “I feel utterly, utterly foul, so let’s start from there,” is Mark’s opening gambit and a question about whether he thought the election coverage was biased is given short shrift – “I think it’s fairly obvious what I’m going to say on that, that’s probably for a different interview.” Fair enough. We’re supposed to be talking about his Radio 4 series, Mark Steel’s in Town, which he is more than happy to do. During our phone conversation, he jumps in and out of cars and hides in doorways from blustery winds in an effort to carry on chatting. In the series he travels to various towns around the UK, does a ton of research and turns that into a one-hour stand-up show (edited to 30 minutes for radio), in which he, well, takes the mickey out of the place. He’s been doing it for six years and the series has won multiple Sony awards, but still he worries about how the locals will react. “Every single show, I look at the script before I go on and think, I can’t possibly get away with saying this, it’s so rude about their town.” But it seems he has hit upon a winning formula: “The ruder I am, the more they like it!” That approach is not without its hazards. When the show went to the Isle of Man, Mark’s opening line – “It’s great to be in place that’s positive. Because you’ve had the sense to invest in the one remaining boom industry...fiddling tax” – was met by a resounding chorus of boos from the audience. His response? “Well, I’m afraid there’s another hour of that, so you’re going to have to live with it.” Luckily, the Manx men and women seemed happy with that. So how does Mark get away with rocking up to a place and putting on a show where he’s basically pointing a finger and saying, “Look at this place, it’s a bit weird isn’t it”? Firstly, he arrives up to three weeks before the shows to start his research, which involves a combination of digging in the archives and talking to the locals on the streets. So by the time of the show, he’s quite a well-known face. But also, the show mines a rich seam of the British character: self-deprecation. The ability to laugh at ourselves seems to be something that everyone enjoys doing wherever you are in the country. And then there’s the fact that Mark does genuinely like all the places he visits, in all their glorious eccentricities and strange local customs. “Every single place you go, you find these people who have a great passion for it and know all the history.” For instance, you would have thought Chipping Norton, home to the Prime Minister, Rebekah Brooks and Jeremy Clarkson, would be the sort of place any self-respecting one-time member of the Socialist Workers Party would avoid like the plague. But Mark wanted to do a show to prove there was life beyond the “Chipping Norton Set”: “Most people there were perfectly decent, reasonable people. They were lovely. That was one of the most fun ones we ever did. You know, it wasn’t an audience of Jeremy Clarksons.” In a way, that’s a sort of raison d'etre of the show – to go to places and see if the stereotypes about them are true or not. Is Chipping Norton peopled by a right-wing cabal, swimming in champagne and snorting caviar for breakfast? No. Is Barnard Castle in Durham really so twee that its crime report is made up of one incident of someone burning litter in the woods? As a later episode this series shows, yes. Is Glastonbury full of new age weirdness? Yes, but they’ll get more upset if you drink the wrong sort of cider than if you insult all that “pagan nonsense”. And that’s the way Mark prefers it: “I always think places should live up to their stereotypes.” Asked how he chooses which places to visit, he’s hard-pushed to give a precise answer – just that it’s normally a place he’s vaguely heard of and wondered what it’s like. For the first of the new series, he’s in the Lancashire town of Fleetwood, just up the coast from Blackpool. He’d heard of it because he knew a ferry used to run from it and remembered when the football team got promoted to the Football League. Upon visiting it, he discovered that not only was it home to Jane Couch, the first officially licensed British female boxer, but also to that famous cough remedy, Fisherman’s Friend. “This old fella came up to us, out of nowhere, and he went, ‘In the old days, y’know, you went to t’ doctor’s, and they never give you medicine, they give you Fisherman’s Friend.’ I wonder what he’d say for Ebola? ‘Oh, you’d need two for that.’” It’s those moments that make the show work so well. And he is lucky to have hit upon another bit of serendipity in the latest series. The day after I talked to him, he was due to travel to Paisley to record a show, where the SNP’s Mhairi Black had just been elected as supposedly the UK’s youngest MP since the 17th century. Mark seemed delighted to be visiting what he called “the Socialist Anti-Austerity Capital of Paisley”, and by the fact that Black had lived up to the Scottish stereotype by having said about Labour councillors after the independence referendum, “It took every fibre of my being not to put the nut on ‘em”. As it turns out, he found more important things to talk about: I was playing pool in a pub in Paisley, when a dog climbed on the table and knocked the balls in the pockets. This is normal apparently. — Mark Steel (@mrmarksteel) May 12, 2015 The show is really an extension of what every stand-up comedian does during a set, talk a little bit about where they are. But for Mark that turned into something else: “It’s any comedian’s favourite part of a show, but I realised I loved doing this little five or ten minutes about a town, and I was doing more and more. So then I thought, I wonder if I could just do a whole show about a town. I didn’t know if it would work.” Six years later, the answer’s a definite yes. And Mark sums up the appeal of the show simply when he says: “Everywhere’s so different. Everywhere’s interesting.” Mark Steel's in Town begins on Tuesday 19th May on Radio 4 at 6.30pm