The centenary of the Easter Rising in Dublin is marked by a number of programmes, among them The News From Home (Sunday, 9pm, Radio 3), a drama that looks at the events of that week from the unlikely perspective of a couple of Irish maidservants working in an English country house in the New Forest. In Ireland: Looking Beyond The Border (Monday, 8pm, Radio 4) the BBC’s Ireland correspondent Chris Page examines the relationship between Irish nationalism and unionism 100 years on, and finds it apparently less vexed than in the past.
In 1916: A Letter From Ireland (Sunday, 1.30pm, Radio 4), however, the Irish Times journalist Fintan O’Toole presents a programme about the concerns of ordinary Irish citizens during that exceptional week 100 years ago, drawn from more than 2,000 letters that were solicited from the public by Maynooth University. This was in an epistolary era when written correspondence was as popular as Facebook is today. The entirely understandable delays at the Dublin post office at the time meant people’s regular letters couldn’t be sent so they spent their time updating the ones they had already begun with their thoughts on the momentous events taking place.
Meanwhile, there are interesting takes on minority musical instruments in Suck It And See (Tuesday, 11.30am, Radio 4), in which songwriter Amy Wadge talks about her lifelong love affair with the harmonica, and Finding Harpo’s Voice (Monday, 11pm, Radio 4), in which cellist Steven Isserlis explores his fascination with Harpo, the silent member of comedy act the Marx brothers. Silent is a misleading adjective here: Harpo didn’t speak but he could usually be relied upon to raise a ruckus wherever he went, whether via his collection of bells, whistles and klaxons or, more mellifluously, on the harp, which he really could play.
In this week’s Boswell’s Lives (Monday, 11.30am, Radio 4) the part of Karl Marx, bushy sage of Bloomsbury, is taken by Julian Rhind-Tutt, who also turns up in the title role of that mainstay of Pomeroy’s wine bar, Rumpole (Monday, 2.15pm, Radio 4). In this he follows in the footsteps of Leo McKern, Maurice Denham and Benedict Cumberbatch. His wife Hilda is played by Jasmine Hyde and still “must be obeyed”. This is a two-part blockbuster in which Horace finds himself on trial with the end of his career in sight.
All About Property (Sunday, 10am, 5 Live), with Gabby Logan, provides advice and help for people trying to buy their own home. This week, she joins a house-viewing to see what kind of things a prospective buyer may miss and looks at the bewildering range of options when it comes to financing such a move. It’s a process studded with pitfalls and drawbacks. The problem is that the experience is so draining that those engaged in it soon reach a stage when they just close their eyes and jump.
The growth of podcasts means it’s never been easier to mug up on a place prior to a visit. Looking for historical walks in New York led me to stumble upon the Bowery Boys podcast. This has been done for almost 10 years now by Greg Young and Tom Meyers, two incomers who have the kind of all-consuming curiosity, shared by all right-thinking people, to work out what happened in their city in years past. Recent episodes have dealt with the newsboys strike of 1899, the history of the Staten Island Ferry, and the real-life sites on which Martin Scorsese’s Vinyl is based. Whether you’re visiting or not, this is a good listen.
