The Archers (Radio 4) | iPlayer
The Documentary: Where Are You Going? (BBC World Service) | iPlayer
Iain Lee (TalkRadio) | TalkRadio
I don’t know, you go away for one week… Catching up on The Archers palavers in one fell swoop made me realise that I am not a genuine fan. Is it very wrong to say that the only part of the programme I’ve been enjoying is the domestic violence story? Yes. It is wrong. But it’s the truth. Hauling myself through the omnibus that featured Lynda’s pageant reminded me of how excruciating I used to find Thomas the Tank Engine stories, in the days when my son was obsessed with them. All the parts of good old Blighty that I don’t like. And I don’t like domestic violence either – obviously – but Rob Titchener’s seductive charm, his awful bullying, makes for fascinating listening. Not so the hanging of the curtains in Ambridge village hall. Someone at the BBC should do an edit that just features the Helen-Rob story, quick.
Anyhow, last week featured the fallout from Helen stabbing Rob, graphically described to Pat and Tony, Helen’s parents, by Rob’s dad, who is quite the man. His intimidating personality and the way he speaks to his wife, Ursula, give us an insight into Rob and Ursula. We also heard how the police might view a case such as Helen and Rob’s – with dismay and not much sympathy for the knife-wielder. Lord knows what will happen, but aside from the inevitable court case (Helen would do well to change her lawyer) you’d place a bet on Henry being fought over by both sets of grandparents. Helen will not be allowed to care for him for quite some time, and Rob won’t be able to either. Or will he…?
Over on the World Service, I enjoyed a different kind of human revelation from Catherine Carr, who made a beautiful programme by simply stopping people in the street and asking them: Where Are You Going?. She did this first in New York, with Amsterdam to follow. New Yorkers love to tell their tales, but Carr also asked all the right questions, about relationships, about the past and the present, about clothes and attitudes and where people really are going. And because of this, the tales told were mesmerising. We met gay, straight, old, not so old, drug users, high-school teachers, pigeon snafflers, a man who worked under the ground on which they stood. Wonderful stuff, deftly and sympathetically made.
TalkSport has a new companion, TalkRadio. I haven’t listened to much of it yet, though the presenter line-up sounds perfectly pitched: Paul Ross, Julia Hartley-Brewer, Sam Delaney. Not so keen on George Galloway, but he’s only Friday nights. And then there’s Iain Lee.
The last time I wrote about Lee, he was taking his leave of the BBC for calling out a homophobe. But we’ve all moved on now, haven’t we, and Lee is perfectly suited to his new slot, 10pm-1am, Monday to Thursday nights. How to describe his show? It’s… a load of waffle. Brilliant, mad, unpredictable waffle. I love it. There’s not much music, the occasional caller and interview, and in between, Lee and his on-air producer, Katherine Boyle, have a laugh. And they make me laugh while they do so.
On Wednesday night, a good half-hour was filled with Lee and Boyle trying to serve a caller in a restaurant. They weren’t actually in a restaurant, you understand; it was just that Lee had been talking about going to a lunch and saying thank you to waiters, and how everything would grind to a halt without serving staff and that developed into… Oh, you know what? Give it a listen. If you don’t laugh within five minutes, it’s not for you. If you do, say hallelujah for some late-night radio that’s more than – oh God – “lively discussion” of “issues”.
