The Corbyn Story (R4) | iPlayer
BeSpoke (5 Live) | iPlayer
The Telegraph Cycling Podcast | player.fm
What Goes on Here | iTunes
Our national politics is moving so fast and so crazily at the moment, pinballing from crisis to crisis, characters flipping back up just as they are disappearing, pinging off to left and right. This new, strange mania means we forget not only history, but the recent past. Just a few months ago, Andrea Leadsom was a nobody; George Osborne (who he?) a somebody. And Mr J Corbyn was a dutiful but low-key Labour MP, fond of his allotment and a leftwing meeting. Now, we know he is both a save-the-people superhero and a wuffling bus-pass holder who can’t make a decision to save his life. A quite unbelievable and inhuman combination.
So, well done Radio 4 for giving us The Corbyn Story, a sober, sensible three-part series on who Corbyn might really be, and why he is where he is. Actually, I say a sober series, but Monday’s first part was punctuated by lots of giggles. Many of the speakers had a smile in their voice, a bubbling-up laugh that sounded… well, it sounded incredulous. John McDonnell recounted the story of how Corbyn came to stand for the Labour party leadership. It sounded like a silly, Eeny meeny, dib-dib-dib decision – Diane Abbott had already tried, so had McDonnell, so it must be Corbyn’s turn – but the glee in McDonnell’s voice was palpable. He was delighted. As were two tweeting Corbyn activists, meeting for the first time in real life for the programme.
Everyone seemed upbeat, excited, happy. Owen Jones described Corbyn campaign meetings where hundreds more people turned up than were expected. A teacher, who went to one of the meetings, described how Corbyn told a “parable” about a franchised coffee shop and one owned by an ordinary person: guess which one paid their taxes? It became easier to understand Corbyn’s rapid rise. Because this all sounded… great. It sounded great. I’m not sure that the next two episodes will be quite as jovial, but I will definitely be tuning in. Steve Richards presented, as impeccably as ever.
There are other real-life dramas out there, which brings me to two cycling podcasts. The Tour de France is as exciting as ever, and both 5Live’s cycling spin-off, BeSpoke, and the Telegraph Cycling Podcast are right in the thick of the action. I listened to them after Stage 11, the mad stage from Carcassonne to Montpellier, where the crosswinds got up to 50mph and what should have been a finish for sprinters was fought out by the green and yellow jerseys. (If none of this makes sense, then perhaps these podcasts are not for you.) And I enjoyed them both for different reasons. BeSpoke got an interview with Dave Brailsford, the Telegraph podcast had David Millar popping in. Everyone on both podcasts talked with informed, welcoming enthusiasm. BeSpoke’s style is a little more formal (it reminds me a bit of Gary “the Don” Imlach’s sections on the TV Tour de France offering), but both are excellent, perfect for a cycling fan’s commute.
And Sam Walker has a new-ish podcast, What Goes on Here, which examines personal dramas. Every couple of weeks, she talks to someone who has really been through a bad time in their life, and finds out what got them out to the other side. Which sounds grim, but it isn’t. Walker is a warm presence, and the stories are fascinating. The whole package reminds me a little of Victoria Derbyshire’s best 5Live interviews, where people were allowed to tell their tales, with just a few probing questions to keep things bubbling along. BBC Radio Manchester’s Walker does this well. I’m not always a fan of the idea that we can all learn from those who face adversity – that extreme survival stuff doesn’t always work for me – but these are highly listenable programmes.
