Radio
Is Matthew Parris the modern Plutarch? Radio 4’s Great Lives reviewed
Whenever I listen to Great Lives on Radio 4, which is often, I am reminded of the gulf between fame…
An all too brisk and too narrow history of eugenics: Radio 4’s Bad Blood reviewed
Like so many of history’s great catastrophes, the story begins with an eccentric Victorian Englishman. Francis Galton was a maker…
An author speaks out against social censorship: The Reith Lectures reviewed
‘The Age of Anxiety’, W. H. Auden’s book-length poem, has always been described as strange, and difficult. It is an…
The extraordinary case of Malcolm MacArthur
Non-fiction tells you what happened, fiction affirms the kinds of things that happen. According to Aristotle, anyway. So while journalism…
Manet’s Mona Lisa: Radio 4’s Moving Pictures reviewed
Elizabeth the First is a ten-part American podcast series that isn’t about Elizabeth I at all. The assumption of its…
Shocked and moved me far more than I anticipated: Hoaxed reviewed
I shied away from conspiracy stuff during the Trump era. Not the theories themselves, but the huge volume of content…
The genius of More or Less
In a week of slim audio pickings, I spent time reacquainting myself with some of the BBC classics and can…
Welcome to the weird world of the New Right: Subversive podcast reviewed
Subversive is a podcast that documents the world of the ‘New Right’, a strange development in conservatism. Host Alex Kaschuta,…
BBC radio has excelled itself over the past week
Listening to BBC Radios 3 and 4 over the past week has been like meeting an old friend who, after…
Emily Maitlis tries too hard not to be teachery on her new podcast
The competition between news-led podcasts is nearing boiling point. If you tuned in to The Media Show on Radio 4…
Why we must defend Radio 3 from threatened cuts
Who doesn’t love Eurovision? All that razzmatazz. The ghastly frocks and gloopy pop songs, the false bonhomie and bare-faced bias…
Rivals Wagatha Christie for its lowbrow twists: FT's Hot Money – Who Rules Porn? reviewed
It was recently reported that almost 8 per cent of global internet traffic is to pornographic websites. The rise of…
Why is the post-colonial guilt only applied to Western classical traditions? Radio 3's World of Classical reviewed
The blurb accompanying the Radio 3 series World of Classical, inviting us to ‘join the dots between classical music traditions…
A belter of a podcast, featuring a mad South African: Smoke Screen reviewed
I go back and forth on tobacco companies. On the one hand, they are merchants of death. On the other,…
Hearing Percy Bysshe Shelley read aloud was a revelation
Last week I heard the actor Julian Sands give a virtuoso performance of work by Percy Bysshe Shelley to mark…
No genre of storytelling is more formulaic or more exhausted than true crime
Nothing new under the sun. Or at least it feels that way these days, doesn’t it? The movies are TV…
How interesting an art is fashion?
One of the New York Met Gala stylists is sharing tips for wearing a corset to an evening do. ‘Breathe…
The cruelty of reality TV was part of the appeal
Jade Goody appeared on Big Brother in 2002. She was a short, loud, blonde-haired woman who broadcast her every thought…
Boldly and brilliantly unoriginal: Kermode and Mayo’s Take reviewed
Last April Fools’ Day, Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo wound up their award-winning film review show on BBC Radio 5…
Enjoyably plummy and male: Battleground – The Falklands War podcast reviewed
The Battlegroundpodcast on the wars of the 20th century, said presenter Saul David happily, ‘will have lots of bombs and…
A podcast with real emotional heft: Philippa Perry’s Siblings in Session reviewed
Have you ever taken a piece of advice? I’m not asking a rhetorical question. Have you ever once in your…
A wonderfully unguarded podcast about the last bohemians
Ordinarily, if a podcast purports to be revelatory, you can assume it is anything but. There’s a glut of programmes…
Why we drink
‘I like to have a martini,/ Two at the very most./ After three I’m under the table,/ After four I’m…
New Marr is very much the same as the old Marr: LBC's Tonight With Andrew Marr reviewed
Andrew Marr got his voice back this week. That may come as a bit of a surprise to everybody who’s…
Some of the best social commentary around: Celebrity Book Club with Steven & Lily reviewed
When I was ten years old I had a babysitter who was a beautiful graduate student at an Ivy League…
