Jeremy Vine: Ed Miliband Sits In (BBC Radio 2) | iPlayer
Ed O’Brien – Saints of Somewhere | Podcast
PM (BBC Radio 4) | iPlayer
You take your comfort where you can, but Ed Miliband is not a man I would have previously looked to for delight or reassurance. Too nerdy. Too alien. Can’t eat his snacks correctly. But having heard him on Radio 2, sitting in for Jeremy Vine, I find I have changed my opinion entirely. Miliband was one of the few joys in another relentlessly awful week.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but I had the feeling that his producer, Phil Jones, was enjoying himself too. Monday’s show was tricky, covering the Finsbury Park mosque attack, but as the week went on there was more fun. Ed talks how to cool down in this heat! Ed sings death metal! A chat about toilets on Tuesday was just great. Are the new button flushes inefficient? “We sent our reporter, Tim Johns, to a toilet,” said Miliband, “to tell us more.”
Listeners phoned in. “With the new ones, when you have, you know, a big job, it’ll take three or four flushes,” said one man, gravely. “And then you’re left with skid marks.” Ed sympathised, while apologising to listeners who were eating their lunch. Other callers came on to demonstrate the power of their flush. “I’m in the toilet,” said Lorraine from Northumberland, “as we speak.” She unleashed a mighty torrent. Later on, in a chat about how to keep cool, another man phoned from his bathroom. “I’m stripped to the waist, in trousers and underpants, no socks and no shoes. I’ve just had a complete body wash down,” he said.
Radio gold, if you ask me. Miliband was delightful to everyone: listening hard, letting them speak, chipping in with quips (perhaps a few too many, but as a nervous quipper, I sympathise). Yes, his voice is too adenoidal for radio, and he was occasionally over-giddy, but you sensed the listeners liked him. On Wednesday, an elderly Tory supporter phoned in. “Why doesn’t anyone give Theresa May a chance?” she wondered, before offering a “That’s all right, darlin’”, when Ed thanked her for her contribution.
It’s hard to overstate how well produced this show is. Miliband is clearly reading from a script, the timing is rigorous, the show is packed with great guests (Jeremy Corbyn’s brother!). To be honest, with hand-holding like this, a bright 11-year-old could do the job. Which bodes well for Iain Duncan Smith, who will be sitting in the same chair next week. Perhaps we’ll discover he, too, has a personality in there. Because, in the end, it was Miliband who made these shows. His sincerity and kindness were absolutely clear. Such qualities shine out in broadcasting, and Miliband twinkled like a very sweet, glad-to-be-out-of-the-House star. If the BBC don’t get him on Strictly, they’re missing a trick.
Time for another Ed. O’Brien, the guitarist from Radiohead, was on Saints of Somewhere this week, as a hat-tip to Radiohead’s headlining slot at Glastonbury this weekend. The podcast, hosted by Kirsty Robinson, is an intriguing one: it gets its interviewees to chart their life and beliefs through their “saints” – their defining moments or influences. O’Brien was moving and open, especially interesting on faith, belief and the power of crowds. “Every single person in an audience is as important as us,” he said. “We just strike the match.”
And, lastly, yet another Ed. On Wednesday’s PM, Eddie Mair interviewed Boris Johnson. Like Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn before him, Johnson was not across his party’s every policy detail. Mair punished him for it; quick and cold, as ruthless as you feel Johnson is underneath his charm. “No solutions,” he said. “Not a single concrete policy.” He didn’t even mention that Johnson was ruffling through papers to find his answers. He didn’t need to: we could hear it.
“What,” inquired Mair, with icy politesse, “is the point of this prime minister?” Johnson’s bluster squeaked out of him – “Ah, ah ah, ah…” and he subsided like a pricked balloon. Back the Eds to win.
