As Many Leaves (Radio 4) | iPlayer
The Power of Negative Thinking (Radio 4) | iPlayer
Undone/Crimetown/Heavyweight | Gimlet Media
How familiar should Radio 4 be? On the one hand it must stay the same – heaven forfend that anything should disrupt the rigid scheduling and groundhog formats of the 9am shows, for instance; or those of Today or Woman’s Hour
or You and Yours or World at One or PM or The Archers. And yet the station must evolve somehow, change around the edges to attract those of us who might be middle-aged but still unwilling to tune into Midweek.
There are many 4-ites who listen readily to 6Music or Adam Buxton, or clever narrative podcasts from the US. Radio 4 knows this, and has worked hard to offer something that might tear us away from This American Life. Now we have Shortcuts, The Untold, one or two dramas that I can actually listen to all the way through, and many offbeat, stimulating 11am documentaries. (It’s interesting how NPR and the BBC feed off each other. Plenty of US podcasters listen to Radio 4: many try to emulate its comedy panel shows, or copy the way 4 uses experts to enlighten.)
On Friday I listened to As Many Leaves, and it was as NPR as NPR could be. Made by the excellent indie Falling Tree, practically a one-house UK radiotopia, this was the simple tale of a marriage break-up. US financial journalist Sally Herships told of her efforts to find out why her husband had left her and how hard it was for her to carry on without him.
Her ex was called Adnan (a little odd for Serial fans), and the manner of his going was cruel. He just upped and left… and Herships was left alone, with no idea what had gone wrong. Her ex hadn’t the bottle to face the results of his actions. She, however, was brave enough to let us into her post-marriage life, and the result was an emotional, wonderful listen.
Perhaps Herships’s mistake was to be optimistic. In The Power of Negative Thinking, Guardian columnist Oliver Burkeman argued that sunny-side-uppers are doing life all wrong. Far better, he says, to assume the worst. I’ve enjoyed this grumpy series. I liked the oil-rig worker who described his job (health and safety, essentially) as causing him “chronic unease”. Also, the academic who explained that “negative thinking, positive action” was the way to go about things. So, don’t assume your friend is going to recover from cancer, but do give them a lift to the hospital. Presumably, negative action would be you dangling the car keys in front of them and then saying, “Nah, let’s not go, it won’t make any difference.”
Over in US podcast land, Gimlet Media is making a land grab. Just a few short months ago, it offered Start Up and Reply All and that was our lot. Now, it’s rolling out podcasts like they’re on a conveyor belt. I’ve reviewed most of the older series before, including the excellent Mystery Show (how weird that Gimlet has cancelled this!). Of the recent offerings, I’ve not checked out Homecoming yet (it’s a psychological thriller), but I like Undone, which looks at the modern consequences of older news stories. I’m less keen on Crimetown, mostly because the first city covered is Providence, Rhode Island, the third most mafioso city in the States, after New York and Chicago. I just don’t get off on old wise guys telling their war stories. Not because they’re wise guys, but because their tales have been told so often that they’re now boiled-down anecdotes, sealed from surprise and insight.
Heavyweight, hosted by Jonathan Goldstein, is hit and miss. Goldstein’s whimsicality and self-absorbedness can be irritating, but episode 7, Julia, is mesmerising. Badly bullied in her early teenage years, Julia tries to find 12 of the girls that bullied her. The result is not what you might want, but it’s also not what you expect. Recommended.
