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A Very Special Radio Roundup
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to a very special Radio Roundup, a Radio Roundup that has been seven years in the making, a Radio Roundup I have been waiting to share with you since before I even started doing these lists. For lo, in their great mercy and kindness, the Powers That Be at BBC Radio HQ have seen to it that I can share with you now the radio play that started it all – the two hours of audio adventure that launched an obsession and brought you the One Hundred Years Ago Today series and a pile of drawings of dead white guys which you very patiently tolerated. Yes, dear internet, we have at last seen a rerun of ...
THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD
I will be posting more on that soon, but if you want to see my flailing in the meantime, there's the Tumblr post for Episode 1, featuring some subtle photo manips, and for Episode 2 with visual aides for some scenes in that episode, from like, actual history.
On with the show ...
SERIOUS
Things Fall Apart - The legacy of Chinua Achebe's landmark novel, making me wish some of these people had taught it to me in high school rather than what I got. Better late than never!
Catherine of Aragon: Henry's Spanish Queen - An abridged biography of Henry VIII's first wife, rather poorly done by and didn't she know it. Have I mentioned Wolf Hall?
Ghost Trains of Old England - There are trains that run disused routes for a variety of reasons. This programme has a peek at some of them.
Profile: Anonymous - The hacktivist organisation has recently declared war on ISIS. Who are they, what does that entail, and is it a good idea?
The Dictatorship of Data - Authoritarian regimes of the 20th century collected surveillance of their citizens for the purposes of control. These days we produce so much more data which is so much easier to analyze, and those interested in surveillance have evolved alongside.
In Our Time: The Salem Witch Trials - Thank goodness we are well past religiously motivated mass panics and nothing like this could ever, ever happen again. Ever.
How Islamic is the Islamic State? - People keep saying it shouldn't be called Islamic State because it's neither of those things, but what is the theology that makes them think they are, and why do other Muslims disagree? This programme also goes into their internal logic and motivations, which is interesting and valuable when you generally only get coverage of their bloody deeds. I would like to hear a documentary comparing and contrasting fundamentalist millenarian IS with the thread of fundementalist millenarian Evangelical Christianity you get in the States. Might have to trawl the CBC for that. Speaking of which ...
The Current: God Bless America - Discussing the rise of the Christian right, its paradoxical association with capitalism and the infusion of military rhetoric with religious meaning. Pairs well with the essay Freeing Christians from Americhristianity by John Pavlovitz.
Ed Catmull, inside Pixar - It's a good thing this clip is under 10 minutes or I wouldn't have made it through. Among other things he admits the systemic racism and sexism of the studio apparently without realising. I'll stop there before going into manifesto mode but oh I so could.
FUN
M.R. James Stories - M.R. James was a medievalist at Cambridge in the early 20th century, but is best remembered in the wider sphere for his ghost stories, which were often delivered at Christmas parties. Radio 4 Extra often reruns his material around the holidays, and the first crop of dramatisations has just popped up. Of particular interest to me is Number 13 as it takes place in Viborg, and the last time I was there
The hotel in the original story (which is better than the radio version, I admit) is described as brick-fronted with a half-timbered yard. This is the biggest brick-fronted building in the old part of town:
It's conveniently just off the Domplads (cathedral plaza), though it doesn't have a passageway into the yard as described. There is one of those across the street, though.
A corner of the cathedral and the Domplads (or parkeringplads amirite) with an administrative building that may have held the archives, if they weren't held further into the centre of town at what is now the Viborg Museum:
And just for fun, here's a super cool little cellar door:
The Now Show - It's not easy to do a topical comedy show a week after an atrocity, but the Now Show team manages it rather admirably.
Double Acts: Hot Desk - A bit like The Apartment, but with a reception/security desk, and I have never seen The Apartment so that's as far as I can go. Too much a 'mirror up to nature' to be your average romantic comedy, but it's funny and about relationships and by John Finnemore so is delightful regardless. And it's the LAST of the Double Acts! Woe, woe. (There's a new series of Souvenir Programme starting in January so we don't have to weep too long.)
I will be posting more on that soon, but if you want to see my flailing in the meantime, there's the Tumblr post for Episode 1, featuring some subtle photo manips, and for Episode 2 with visual aides for some scenes in that episode, from like, actual history.
On with the show ...
SERIOUS
Things Fall Apart - The legacy of Chinua Achebe's landmark novel, making me wish some of these people had taught it to me in high school rather than what I got. Better late than never!
Catherine of Aragon: Henry's Spanish Queen - An abridged biography of Henry VIII's first wife, rather poorly done by and didn't she know it. Have I mentioned Wolf Hall?
Ghost Trains of Old England - There are trains that run disused routes for a variety of reasons. This programme has a peek at some of them.
Profile: Anonymous - The hacktivist organisation has recently declared war on ISIS. Who are they, what does that entail, and is it a good idea?
The Dictatorship of Data - Authoritarian regimes of the 20th century collected surveillance of their citizens for the purposes of control. These days we produce so much more data which is so much easier to analyze, and those interested in surveillance have evolved alongside.
In Our Time: The Salem Witch Trials - Thank goodness we are well past religiously motivated mass panics and nothing like this could ever, ever happen again. Ever.
How Islamic is the Islamic State? - People keep saying it shouldn't be called Islamic State because it's neither of those things, but what is the theology that makes them think they are, and why do other Muslims disagree? This programme also goes into their internal logic and motivations, which is interesting and valuable when you generally only get coverage of their bloody deeds. I would like to hear a documentary comparing and contrasting fundamentalist millenarian IS with the thread of fundementalist millenarian Evangelical Christianity you get in the States. Might have to trawl the CBC for that. Speaking of which ...
The Current: God Bless America - Discussing the rise of the Christian right, its paradoxical association with capitalism and the infusion of military rhetoric with religious meaning. Pairs well with the essay Freeing Christians from Americhristianity by John Pavlovitz.
Ed Catmull, inside Pixar - It's a good thing this clip is under 10 minutes or I wouldn't have made it through. Among other things he admits the systemic racism and sexism of the studio apparently without realising. I'll stop there before going into manifesto mode but oh I so could.
FUN
M.R. James Stories - M.R. James was a medievalist at Cambridge in the early 20th century, but is best remembered in the wider sphere for his ghost stories, which were often delivered at Christmas parties. Radio 4 Extra often reruns his material around the holidays, and the first crop of dramatisations has just popped up. Of particular interest to me is Number 13 as it takes place in Viborg, and the last time I was there
The hotel in the original story (which is better than the radio version, I admit) is described as brick-fronted with a half-timbered yard. This is the biggest brick-fronted building in the old part of town:
It's conveniently just off the Domplads (cathedral plaza), though it doesn't have a passageway into the yard as described. There is one of those across the street, though.
A corner of the cathedral and the Domplads (or parkeringplads amirite) with an administrative building that may have held the archives, if they weren't held further into the centre of town at what is now the Viborg Museum:
And just for fun, here's a super cool little cellar door:
The Now Show - It's not easy to do a topical comedy show a week after an atrocity, but the Now Show team manages it rather admirably.
Double Acts: Hot Desk - A bit like The Apartment, but with a reception/security desk, and I have never seen The Apartment so that's as far as I can go. Too much a 'mirror up to nature' to be your average romantic comedy, but it's funny and about relationships and by John Finnemore so is delightful regardless. And it's the LAST of the Double Acts! Woe, woe. (There's a new series of Souvenir Programme starting in January so we don't have to weep too long.)