Helen Fraser and Toby Jones star in an absorbing dramatisation of Penelope Fitzgerald’s Human Voices (Saturday, 2.30pm, Radio 4). This novel was based on Fitzgerald’s experiences as a teenage programme assistant at the BBC during the war. The main character, Annie Asra, finds an organisation riddled with private fiefdoms, gripped by fear of government interference, and ready to bend at the knee to its big names, a Beeb that will obviously be unrecognisable to anyone working in W1A today. Fitzgerald had an extraordinary life, which began in a bishop’s palace and involved a surprising amount of time in homeless shelters. Penelope Wilton reads Hermione Lee’s account of this life less ordinary in Penelope Fitzgerald – A Life (Weekdays, 2.45pm, Radio 4 Extra).
The London debut of US saxophonist and bandleader Kamasi Washington at last year’s London jazz festival at the Barbican was described by John Lewis in this paper as a “staggering, absorbing spectacle”. A recording of that performance provides the meat of this week’s Jazz Line-Up (Saturday, 5pm, Radio 3). Washington’s triple album Epic was, by popular acclaim, the jazz recording of last year. Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly was its pop cousin and Washington features on both, which gives you some idea of his breadth. He and his ensemble make a big, broad noise. You might like them even if you don’t think you like jazz.
It’s difficult to think of anything more Radio 4 than The One About The Social Worker (Weekdays, 7.45pm, Radio 4). Here, Claire Skinner plays a social worker trying to start her career again following a few bad decisions. Like a charismatic detective who gets results despite unconventional methods and a disdain for red tape, her Liz Beecham spends an inordinate amount of time overcoming the suspicion of clients she has been sent to help. Devon, whose story is based on a real case, has been declared “unplaceable” and seems destined for prison until Liz comes along.
Book of the week is The Outrun (Weekdays, 9.45am, Radio 4) by Amy Liptrot, who was raised in Orkney by a bipolar father and a mother who was a born-again Christian. At 18 she got as far away from its wind-whipped landscape as possible, seeking out “the warm pulse of the city”. She found this beating loudest in bohemian east London, in parties in Shoreditch and summer days hanging out with the beautiful, bearded people in London Fields, drinking too much and getting herself into perilous situations. The Outrun describes her road back to sobriety and nature.
In Secret Admirers (Weekdays, 10.45pm, Radio 3), five Radio 3 people deliver essays about their musical crushes. On Monday Fiona Talkington celebrates Joseph Canteloube of Songs Of The Auvergne fame; on Tuesday Ian McMillan does Ralph Vaughan Williams; later in the week, Clemency Burton-Hill celebrates composer George Enescu, John Toal presents Maurice Ravel, and Petroc Trelawney warmly endorses Lennox Berkeley.
Since the start of 2016, the arts station Resonance FM has been available via DAB in the London area. The volunteers who run it are keen to learn how far that reception area extends. You can find out how to retune your DAB to pick up the station at resonancefm.com. Do get in touch to let them know whether they’re coming through loud and clear where you live.
• This article was amended on 19 January 2016. An earlier version referred to Penelope Fitzgerald’s Human Voices as the 1979 Booker prize winner. Fitzgerald did win the Booker that year, but for Offshore.
