Radio Roundup
Apr. 20th, 2021 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinI've been throwing links into a rolling Radio Roundup draft practically all year, then they expire before I manage to code it and post it. So, here is a very random collection of listening, helped significantly by an increase in the number of programmes being hosted either permanently or on extended 'loan.' Not much comedy this time around, but the drama department is BACK.
FACTUAL
Conspiracies - We all know conspiracy theories are taking over the world, so this really excellent series exploring the modern history of conspiracies and the analysis of patterns between them comes none too soon. I've listened twice already and that won't be the last!
Dante 2021 - Dante Alighieri died 700 years ago, a year after finishing his most famous work, The Divine Comedy. You know, the one with the circles of Hell and all that. This two-part series looks at what this splendid work of the medieval imagination has to say to us today.
You're Dead to Me - The history podcast for people who don't like history (or who do like history, but also jokes) has released a whole lot more episodes of its signature 'expert meets comedian' cocktail. All fascinating, fills the hours nicely!
Blood and Bronze - Caravaggio has a reputation as the Bad Boy of the Renaissance, but he's an amateur next to the mad, bad, and dangerous to know OG, Benvenuto Cellini.
How To Resist Richard III - The charming, manipulative, narcissistic sociopath rising to a position of power feels like a modern phenomenon, but it's exactly what Shakespeare exposes in his play, which might also give us some clues as to how to stop them.
Bad People - Of all the new BBC Sounds podcasts, this one feels the most podcasty, being hosted by two chirpy and empathetic millennials. Its light conversationality is belied by the subject matter, however, which is criminal psychology! I binged the whole series in two days.
John le Carré - Spy novelist John le Carré died last year; this is an affectionate and comprehensive profile by his longtime friend and neighbour, Philippe Sands (who also presented the excellent The Ratline, which you may remember my going on about some time ago).
Yuri Gagarin - Looking into Soviet Russia's most charismatic cosmonaut, the first man in orbit, and (history has yet to prove me wrong here) the Birdie Bowers of the Space Age.
NARRATIVE NONFICTION
A new section here, as there are some excellent productions which blend history and drama:
Peking Noir - An intelligent, resourceful Russian flees the Revolution and sets up in the underworld of inter-war China. Historical research is complicated by their turning up sometimes as a woman and sometimes as a man. A compelling blend of detective work and drama attempts to thread together the fragments of a fascinating life.
The Battersea Poltergeist - A similar blend of sleuthing and dramatic recreation, a blend frequently found on TV but never, as far as I know, pulled off as successfully as this investigation into the weird case of a poltergeist in 1950s South London. One of a very few radio shows I've been unable to listen to after dark. Do listen with good headphones as the sound design is phenomenal.
Bomb Happy - I've been sitting on this link since Remembrance Day and haven't listened yet, but mean to. If memory serves, it's a dramatic reinterpretation of WWI PTSD in the soldiers' own words, but delivered by modern actors. The trailer was really promising. Maybe we can see about it together.
FICTIONAL
Scarlet Pimpernel expires soon- In my middle school French class, we watched the old film (in English), and it was never made clear that he was putting on the fop persona as an act, and I thought it was the stupidest story ever. I am pleased to say that this radio adaptation is clear as a bell and really fun. Secret agent rescuing people from the French Revolution, in case you didn't have to sit through the old film on a 21" TV all the way on the other side of your middle school French class.
Mabinogi - The great work of Welsh mythology comes to life in this fresh and compelling adaptation. I've only listened to Part 1 so far, but I've read the book, and it's an adept treatment of what could be overly precious or grandiose.
Going Dark - The theatres in London have been shut down a few times before 2020; once was when the Puritans took power in the mid-17th Century. This is the story of how some of those actors saw out that time.
Dance Til You Bleed - An omnibus of five lesser-known Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales, in their original form!
Sorrows of Young Werther - The original Emo, Werther suffers the torment of unrequited love and sets about ruining his life over it. Goethe's novel was hugely influential to the romantic movement, and if you've read about Beethoven at all you've probably heard of it. Now you can hear why.
The Meaning of Zong - The story of an atrocity that profoundly influenced Britain's abolition of the slave trade. This was a stage production adapted for radio, and sometimes suffers for it, but it has some moments of pure magic, so is worth being patient with.
Dot and the Russian Dossier - More secret agent hijinks, this time in wartime England, sort of if Wodehouse tried to be John le Carré but with a lot more ladies. Mainly I just love the pace and the arch way everyone is played. More Fenella Woolgar on the radio, please.
FUNNY
Keep Calman Carry On expires soon- Comedian Susan Calman is a very tense person, but has friends who are good at relaxing, so she sets out to learn from them the secrets of their success.
Just A Minute - After the passing of its eternal host, Nicholas Parsons, the mind-blowing rhetoric game is back with a series of guest hosts. The episode linked is the one I managed to join as part of the remote audience, which was fascinating. It turned out pretty well, despite some significant technical difficulties; I had worried they were going to scrap it. I don't know if they're trying out hosts to find a permanent one or if it will be a rotating chair from now on, but it's nice to see the show still [figuratively] on the road.
THE PLAYLIST
There was a real drought in interesting radio plays, but whoever's taken over as commissioner has brought a little diversity back. Here are some unknown quantities I intend to investigate in the near future:
Devoted - Mostly for the cast, this one, but it's a dramatsation of the six months a writer spent in hospital with Covid.
Scenes from a Zombie Apocalypse - "A persuasive modern horror story" according to the blurb; mainly it's on my list because the director is one of my dependables.
Writ in Water - A play about John Keats' last months
The Elder Son - A Russian farce
Marais and the Soul of the Termite - A South African naturalist meets an untimely end
Voodoo Macbeth - Orson Welles' all-Black staging of a Shakespeare play
Heart of Darkness - updated Conrad
Wasteland - a rubbish comedy, by a good writer
Star child - a gently comic take on the Nativity
FACTUAL
Conspiracies - We all know conspiracy theories are taking over the world, so this really excellent series exploring the modern history of conspiracies and the analysis of patterns between them comes none too soon. I've listened twice already and that won't be the last!
Dante 2021 - Dante Alighieri died 700 years ago, a year after finishing his most famous work, The Divine Comedy. You know, the one with the circles of Hell and all that. This two-part series looks at what this splendid work of the medieval imagination has to say to us today.
You're Dead to Me - The history podcast for people who don't like history (or who do like history, but also jokes) has released a whole lot more episodes of its signature 'expert meets comedian' cocktail. All fascinating, fills the hours nicely!
Blood and Bronze - Caravaggio has a reputation as the Bad Boy of the Renaissance, but he's an amateur next to the mad, bad, and dangerous to know OG, Benvenuto Cellini.
How To Resist Richard III - The charming, manipulative, narcissistic sociopath rising to a position of power feels like a modern phenomenon, but it's exactly what Shakespeare exposes in his play, which might also give us some clues as to how to stop them.
Bad People - Of all the new BBC Sounds podcasts, this one feels the most podcasty, being hosted by two chirpy and empathetic millennials. Its light conversationality is belied by the subject matter, however, which is criminal psychology! I binged the whole series in two days.
John le Carré - Spy novelist John le Carré died last year; this is an affectionate and comprehensive profile by his longtime friend and neighbour, Philippe Sands (who also presented the excellent The Ratline, which you may remember my going on about some time ago).
Yuri Gagarin - Looking into Soviet Russia's most charismatic cosmonaut, the first man in orbit, and (history has yet to prove me wrong here) the Birdie Bowers of the Space Age.
NARRATIVE NONFICTION
A new section here, as there are some excellent productions which blend history and drama:
Peking Noir - An intelligent, resourceful Russian flees the Revolution and sets up in the underworld of inter-war China. Historical research is complicated by their turning up sometimes as a woman and sometimes as a man. A compelling blend of detective work and drama attempts to thread together the fragments of a fascinating life.
The Battersea Poltergeist - A similar blend of sleuthing and dramatic recreation, a blend frequently found on TV but never, as far as I know, pulled off as successfully as this investigation into the weird case of a poltergeist in 1950s South London. One of a very few radio shows I've been unable to listen to after dark. Do listen with good headphones as the sound design is phenomenal.
Bomb Happy - I've been sitting on this link since Remembrance Day and haven't listened yet, but mean to. If memory serves, it's a dramatic reinterpretation of WWI PTSD in the soldiers' own words, but delivered by modern actors. The trailer was really promising. Maybe we can see about it together.
FICTIONAL
Scarlet Pimpernel expires soon- In my middle school French class, we watched the old film (in English), and it was never made clear that he was putting on the fop persona as an act, and I thought it was the stupidest story ever. I am pleased to say that this radio adaptation is clear as a bell and really fun. Secret agent rescuing people from the French Revolution, in case you didn't have to sit through the old film on a 21" TV all the way on the other side of your middle school French class.
Mabinogi - The great work of Welsh mythology comes to life in this fresh and compelling adaptation. I've only listened to Part 1 so far, but I've read the book, and it's an adept treatment of what could be overly precious or grandiose.
Going Dark - The theatres in London have been shut down a few times before 2020; once was when the Puritans took power in the mid-17th Century. This is the story of how some of those actors saw out that time.
Dance Til You Bleed - An omnibus of five lesser-known Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales, in their original form!
Sorrows of Young Werther - The original Emo, Werther suffers the torment of unrequited love and sets about ruining his life over it. Goethe's novel was hugely influential to the romantic movement, and if you've read about Beethoven at all you've probably heard of it. Now you can hear why.
The Meaning of Zong - The story of an atrocity that profoundly influenced Britain's abolition of the slave trade. This was a stage production adapted for radio, and sometimes suffers for it, but it has some moments of pure magic, so is worth being patient with.
Dot and the Russian Dossier - More secret agent hijinks, this time in wartime England, sort of if Wodehouse tried to be John le Carré but with a lot more ladies. Mainly I just love the pace and the arch way everyone is played. More Fenella Woolgar on the radio, please.
FUNNY
Keep Calman Carry On expires soon- Comedian Susan Calman is a very tense person, but has friends who are good at relaxing, so she sets out to learn from them the secrets of their success.
Just A Minute - After the passing of its eternal host, Nicholas Parsons, the mind-blowing rhetoric game is back with a series of guest hosts. The episode linked is the one I managed to join as part of the remote audience, which was fascinating. It turned out pretty well, despite some significant technical difficulties; I had worried they were going to scrap it. I don't know if they're trying out hosts to find a permanent one or if it will be a rotating chair from now on, but it's nice to see the show still [figuratively] on the road.
THE PLAYLIST
There was a real drought in interesting radio plays, but whoever's taken over as commissioner has brought a little diversity back. Here are some unknown quantities I intend to investigate in the near future:
Devoted - Mostly for the cast, this one, but it's a dramatsation of the six months a writer spent in hospital with Covid.
Scenes from a Zombie Apocalypse - "A persuasive modern horror story" according to the blurb; mainly it's on my list because the director is one of my dependables.
Writ in Water - A play about John Keats' last months
The Elder Son - A Russian farce
Marais and the Soul of the Termite - A South African naturalist meets an untimely end
Voodoo Macbeth - Orson Welles' all-Black staging of a Shakespeare play
Heart of Darkness - updated Conrad
Wasteland - a rubbish comedy, by a good writer
Star child - a gently comic take on the Nativity
