May 2011 Archives

Britain’s Got Talent ITV1, Tuesday 7.30pm & 9.30pm

If last night’s instalment is anything to go by, the actual quality of the acts in this year’s BGT is well down on previous years. The only reason I’m listing tonight’s live semi-final is because the cast of Shrek: The Musical, including BGT judge Amanda Holden, will be performing a number from the show.

Lead Balloon BBC2, Tuesday 10pm

A new series of the deadpan comedy with Jack Dee as bad-tempered comedian Rick Spleen. All the regular supporting cast return, including the peerless Raquel Cassidy as Spleen’s long-suffering wife.

Roger & Val Have Just Got In Gold, Wednesday 10pm

Don’t think of this masterpiece from Hugo Blick (The Shadow Line), first shown on the BBC last year, as a sitcom — more an acutely observed play broadcast in six parts. It’s a portrait of a couple whose lives are haunted by a tragedy from their past. There are plenty of laughs, mainly from recognition of the sort of habits everybody picks up after years of living together, but it’s the realities of life that will suck you in. Wonderful performances from Dawn French and Alfred Molina make this unmissable if you haven’t seen it before.

Welly Telly - the Countryside on Television BBC4, Thursday 8pm

One of the things that BBC4 does well is navel-gazing at the history of television. Here, the subject is coverage of rural issues — currently undergoing a resurgence with Country File doing good ratings in a primetime Sunday evening slot.

Talking Funny Sky Atlantic, Thursday 10.15pm

Comedians Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Louis CK and Ricky Gervais discuss their craft. Personally, the first three sell it to me, while the fourth puts me off a little — but an intelligent discussion of working in the entertainment industry ensues which should be of interest to all.

The Goon Show at 60 Radio 4 Extra, Saturday (various times)

The digital channel celebrates sixty years of surrealism and silly voices, the first broadcast of The Goon Show having aired on May 28, 1951, with a series of programmes dedicated to Messrs Milligan, Secombe, Sellers and co.

In Goon Again (first broadcast in 2001 for the 50th anniversary) John Glover, Andrew Secombe and Jeffrey Holland recreate an original script; Eric Sykes: the Radio Years celebrates the actor and writer’s wireless career, including writing for the Goons, while The Last Goon Show of All saw the team reunite in 1972 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the BBC.

The Saturday Play: Sunk Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm

In 1943, the German Third Reich commissioned Titanic), detailing the sinking of the cruise liner, as a propaganda film to discredit British and American capitalism. The costly production ended up, instead, being seen as a symbol for the corruption and downfall of the Reich itself. Mike Walker’s play looks at this intriguing story, and stars Richard Laing, Blake Ritson and Jason Watkins.

Afternoon Play: Corrinne Come Back and Gone Radio 4, Monday 2.15pm

An intense story from the pen of Lenny Henry — his first produced script since gaining his MA in screenwriting. Claire Benedict plays Corrinne, a Jamaican expatriate who, twenty years after she left the island for a new life in the UK, is invited to return by her now-adult daughter.

Afternoon Play: The Big Broadcast Radio 4, Wednesday 2.15pm

Husband and wife songwriting team Jean and Grant are on the cusp of divorce, but they need to write one more number to help save Grant from the mob. Josie Lawrence and Nigel Harman star in this musical set in 1930s radioland, recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre with a live studio audience (which I happened to be a part of).

Truth is, it’s not great — writer and composer Neil Brand evokes the spirit of the age, but the songs are no great shakes. But full credit to radio drama commissioners for trying something a little different. Here’s hoping they continue to commission musicals for radio.

Party Radio 4, Wednesday 6.30pm

A second series for Tom Basden’s satirical comedy about a group of young people who have set up their own political party.

Shedtown Radio 4, Wednesday 11pm

Tony Pitts and Kevin Eldon star in a four-part drama, written by Pitts, and with a cast including Maxine Peake, Suranne Jones, Johnny Vegas, Ronni Ancona and Shaun Dooley. It’s the works day out for the workers of Blakeley Industrial Museum - and something’s got to change.

Friday Night is Music Night Radio 2, Friday 8pm

To mark the move of the BBC Philharmonic to its new home in Salford, Mike Dixon conducts the orchestra in a live performance from the city. There’s a musical theatre focus to the evening, with performances from Matt Rawle, Ricardo Afonso, Alex Gaumond and Paul Spicer.

Paul Merton’s Birth of Hollywood BBC2, Friday 9.30pm

Comedian and silent film aficionado Merton presents this three-part documentary series about how a suburb of Los Angeles became the centre of the nascent film industry.

In Love with Shakespeare Sky Arts 1, Saturday 6.30pm

A new series highlighting the art of the Shakespearean monologue, with a number of actors delivering their favourite speech by the Bard. Simon Callow, Catherine Tate, John Simm, Janie Dee and many more actors are featured, and some of the selections veer away from the usual “standards”.

Doctor Who: The Almost People BBC1, Saturday 6.45pm

The base under seige scenario is a familiar one in Doctor Who’s 48-year history, and it’s done well here, in the second part of Matthew Graham’s creepy tale. The bio-engineered duplicates have now been joined by a duplicate Doctor — but whose side will he be on? Keep watching to the end, for we’re assured that the final scene sets up a humdinger of a cliffhanger in advance of next week’s mid-season finale.

Scott and Bailey ITV1, Sunday 9pm

Rachel Bailey and Janet Scott are detective constables in a murder investigation unit in Manchester. And wouldn’t you know it, they have troubled personal lives. Co-created by Sally Wainwright and former detective Diane Taylor, producers Red Production Company are keen to stress that the show is more accurate with regard to police procedure than your standard telly crime drama. Regardless, I’ll be watching, because the lead actors are Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp.

Britain’s Got Talent ITV1, Monday 7.30pm, 9.30pm

The audition shows over and the acts selected, it’s time for the live shows — and the return of Simon Cowell as a judge, thank God. Starting on Bank Holiday Monday, the semifinals air nightly before the grand final at the weekend.

Glee E4, Monday 9pm

The night of the prom is here, but who shall be elected Prom King and Queen? Will Blaine agree to being Kurt’s date? And do Air Supply really charge that little to perform at an Ohio high school prom? This episode sees the return of Jesse St James (Jonathan Groff, recently in the UK for Deathtrap) in a storyline that will continue until the end of the season in a couple of weeks’ time.

EastEnders BBC1, Tuesday 8pm

An episode which again falls upon the shoulders of June Brown, as the pressure of being Jim Branning’s full-time carer builds up for his wife, Dot.

Primeval Watch, Tuesday 8pm

The co-production deal between ITV and UKTV that saved the time-travelling dionsaure romp from extinction now means that season five starts its debut on digital channel Watch, before being retransmitted on ITV1 in the autumn.

The Shadow Line BBC2, Thursday 9pm

The Shadow Line is maddening. We get some of the best performances from the cream of British acting talent, yet they are often given the most clichéd dialogue to spout. We get some wonderful imagery — last week’s beach scene of Joseph writing out a timeline of the key moments of his life with his wife (Lesley Sharp), who now has Alzheimer’s, with Sharp’s look in the opposite direction, the future, desolate and empty… but that heartbreaking scene was punctured by the over-egging of having the tide obliterate Joseph’s handiwork.

But the crime plot continues to unfold, and we continue to circle around the mysterious Glickman without quite meeting him. This week, Eve Best joins the cast as his girlfriend.

Barbara Windsor Radio 2, Sunday 1pm

A second week of our Babs sitting in for Elaine Paige, and the second week of The Stage’s Matt Hemley presenting the latest theatre news in the last half-hour of the show.

Drama on 3: Giovanni’s Room Radio 3, Sunday 8pm

Adapted and directed by Neil Bartlett and with a cast that includes Damian Lewis, Derek Jacobi, John Lithgow and Greta Scacchi, James Baldwin’s novel was groundbreaking in terms of its sensitive portrayal of homosexuality.

Afternoon Play: Whistling Wally’s Son Radio 4, Monday 2.15pm

Writer Wally K Daly, a prolific writer for TV and radio, dramatises his own childhood, including his wartime memories and his father’s return from a PoW camp.

Gilbert’s Glory Radio 4, Monday-Friday 3.45pm

To mark the centenary of playwright WS Gilbert’s death, poet Ruth Padel explores five different aspects of his work, including his operetta collaborations with Arthur Sullivan and his work as a theatre director.

The Pocket A A Milne Radio 4, Tuesday-Thursday 3.30pm

Three short pieces read by Ian McNeice that demonstrated that there was more to the author than Winnie-the-Pooh.

Afternoon Play: Torchwood Radio 4, Wednesday-Friday 2.15pm

Originally broadcast in July 2009 in the run up to BBC1’s five-day Children of Earth, Radio 4 repeats its three afternoon plays featuring the trio of Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper and Ianto “not dead yet” Jones.

The new TV series of Torchwood, subtitled Miracle Day, should start airing soon, so I guess the repeat of this plays now is understandable. But it’s only a few weeks since these same plays were repeated on Radio 4 Extra — surely the scheduling between the two inter-related channels could be a bit better than this?

Friday Play: RIP Boy Radio 4, Friday 9pm

The now defunct Friday Play slot is revived for this repeat of Red Production Company’s drama, scripted by Neil McKay, about the real life story of a young Asian boy who was beaten to death while in a young offenders institution. This moving drama recently won the Sony Bronze Award for Best Drama.

Dirk Gently BBC2, Friday 9pm
Howard Overman’s adaptation of Douglas Adams’ novel (which itself borrowed liberally from his uncompleted Doctor Who story, Shada) sees Stephen Mangan take on the mantle of the “holistic” detective, who sees his investigation into a missing cat as being fundamentally interconnected with an exploding warehouse, a missing billionaire and a chance encounter with an old college friend. A BBC2 repeat for this BBC4 pilot, which was successful enough to ensure a series commission.

So You Think You Can Dance BBC1, Saturday 5.35pm
With head judge Nigel Lythgoe in the US for the season finale of American Idol, Arlene Phillips gets a one-week promotion, and John Barrowman (who served as a guest judge for part of choreography camp) gets a place on the panel.

Doctor Who: The Rebel Flesh BBC1, Saturday 6.45pm
After last week’s mythology-busting episode, this episode by Life on Mars co-creator Matthew Graham (the first of a two-parter) may prove to be a bit of a let down, but the trailer doesn’t suggest so. A factory in Earth’s future has developed a means of forming progammable matter (the “Flesh”) into synthetic humans to perform the dangerous task of acid mining. But when the Flesh learns to replicate itself, things start to get interesting…

Piers Morgan’s Life Stories: Des O’Connor ITV1, Saturday 9pm
Thanks to Eric Morecambe, comedian and singer Des O’Connor became one of the nation’s favourite punchlines. He didn’t let it stop him from forging a successful stage and TV career, from primetime chat shows to daytime television, earning him public adoration.

British Academy Television Awards BBC1, Sunday 8pm
The best of the awards shows, in my humble opinion — not least because it’s not open to public phone voting, and doesn’t risk certain categories turning from “who is the best” to “who has the most highly mobilised fanbase prepared to use all their phone credit”.

Well, except for the Audience Award, in which Downton Abbey and The Killing shared space on the ballot with The Only Way is Essex. But I’ve covered this before…

Leonardo CBBC, Monday 5.15pm

On a day where there’s precious little drama at primetime from the major UK channels, a chance to highlight a gem of the BBC’s children’s output.

This series, featuring a young Leonardo da Vinci (Jonathan Bailey, aka Flatpack from recent Channel 4 comedy Campus) and his friends, shouldn’t work. The costumes are anachronistic (as is Leonardo’s wooden, but very BMX-style, bicycle), diplomat and philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli has been transformed into a street thief, and the language is very twenty-first century English apart from the occasional exclamations of “Fantastico!”

Despite that all, though, it’s great fun — sorry, it’s Molto bene! — and now half way through its 13-part series it’s got the confidence to set its four main young cast against one another in completely believable ways, as worked to great effect in last week’s episode. This week, Leonardo is illegally studying human anatomy when he chances upon a small gold watch that he comes to believe may possess the power to turn back time.

Glee E4, Monday 9pm

In the last couple of weeks, Glee has shown itself to be truly back on form, and my contacts in the US (otherwise known as Josh, Jen and Ed on the highly recommended Gleeful Podcast) lead me to believe that this latest episode continues the upward trend. This week, all the musical numbers are covers of songs from Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, one of the most successful albums of all time.

Little Howard’s Big Question BBC1, Wednesday 4.30pm

No apologies for recommending the second children’s show in a week. Howard Read (“Big Howard”) and his animated sidekick, Little Howard, start a new series looking at some, occasionally philosophically very deep, questions in a comedic way. This third series will to go some to live up to previous episodes including “Why Do Things Have to Die?” and (my personal favourite episode title of anything in the world, ever) “Can I Wrestle Control of the Weather from Sian Lloyd’s Evil Grip?”

The British Soap Awards ITV1, Wednesday 8pm

They may not be as intellectually demanding as, say, The Shadow Line, but the rigorous schedules of UK television’s “continuing drama series”, as BAFTA likes to call them, mean that the soaps push actors in ways that other television or stage work doesn’t. Whether you think that’s a good idea or not, this awards ceremony recognises their hard work. Recorded on Saturday evening, most of the winning soaps have been publicising their wins already, so chances are that most of the winners will come as no surprise to the show’s target audience.

The Shadow Line BBC2, Thursday 9pm

And speaking of The Shadow Line, and the patience that the opening episodes of Hugo Blick’s crime drama demanded of its audience is starting to pay off. Threads combine, diverge, and new ones introduce themselves. I still think the dialogue is a bit off in places, but I’ll forgive any amount of clunkiness for a single gem, such as last week’s “Typical fucking British car chase!” from Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Gabriel as his police car got snarled up in a traffic jam…

The Comedy Genius of John Sullivan BBC1, Friday 8.30pm
While Only Fools and Horses was a series that pretty much any writer would be proud to have on their CV, it did tend to overshadow the late John Sullivan’s reputation, especially as the BBC refused to let it go, commissioning first spin-off The Green, Green Grass (for which Sullivan wrote the first series) and then prequel Rock and Chips. For me, Dear John and Just Good Friends were regulars part of my teenage telly viewing staple — I was a little too young to fully enjoy Citizen Smith, of which an episode is shown at 6.45pm on Saturday on BBC2, after a repeat of this tribute programme.

Doctor Who BBC1, Saturday 6.30pm
Award-winning fantasy author Neil Gaiman, creator of The Sandman series of graphic novels as well as prose works from American Gods to The Graveyard Book and the BBC drama Neverwhere, takes the Gallifreyan mythos and does something incredible with it. Exactly what, I’m not sure — I’m not one of the lucky few who’s already seen it, and while many small details have been presented as teasers, everybody concerned has been very careful not to reveal too many spoilers. We do know that Suranne Jones guest stars as Idris, the Doctor receives a message in a small cube box (a delivery system familiar to anyone who’s seen Patrick Troughton’s last story, I’m guessing), and there’s an exploration of the Tardis interior. We’ve also seen glimpses of a console room that resembles the Eccleston/Tennant “desktop theme”. All will be revealed in the intriguingly entitled The Doctor’s Wife… Doctor Who Confidential starts immediately afterwards on BBC3.

Eurovision Song Contest BBC1, Saturday 8pm
Graham Norton presents as Blue represent the UK with one of our strongest songs in years — not least because the band have a huge following in Europe, so we have the potential to accumulate more votes than we have recently. Ireland’s entry, ‘sung’ by Jedward, has made it through to the final, and despite being fronted by the pointy-haired muppets is actually infuriatingly catchy. But please don’t vote for it, it’ll only encourage them…

Vera ITV1, Sunday 8pm
In a Sunday where telly drama is thin on the ground, ITV1’s shabby North Eastern detective is a little oasis of mysterious plots and even more mysterious accent shifts from its star… Brenda Blethyn’s shambolic detective is very much Frost in a frock, but the relationship between her and her subordinates Ashworth (David Leon) and Holly (Wunmi Mosaku), as well as her interplay with patholgist Billy Cartwright (Friday Night Dinner’s Paul Ritter) help elevate the whole proceedings.

• Read this week’s issue of The Stage for an insightful interview with star Brenda Blethyn.

Graham Norton Radio 2, Saturday 10am
Eurovision Radio 2, Saturday 8pm
Norton’s weekly Saturday show comes from Düsseldorf as the preparations for the evening’s Eurovision Song Contest final get underway. Special guests will, of course, include Blue, who are singing the UK’s entry I Can.

Norton will also, of course, be commentating the evening’s festivities. If you prefer your narration a little less frenetic and a little more Scottish, Ken Bruce does the honours on Radio 2. Or, of course, long time Stage and TV Today contributor Ewan Spence will be on hand via Twitter and many other new media platforms…

Saturday Play: Deep Down and Dirty Rock’n’Roll Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
Mark Davies Markham, who wrote the book for West End musical Taboo, writes this story of lifelong friends Ed (Suggs) and Carl (Burn Gorman). Both were members of the band Lost Youth, until Carl feigned his own mysterious disappearance. Fourteen years later, Lost Youth is on the verge of a big comeback — but if Carl comes out of hiding, will it ruin Ed’s chances of reviving his career and paying off his debts?

The Complete Smiley: Call for the Dead Radio 4 Extra, Saturday 6am, 4pm, Sunday 4am
Radio 4 Extra begins a repeat run of Radio 4’s adaptation of all eight John le Carré novels to feature gentleman spy George Smiley.

Desert Island Discs Revisited: June Spencer Radio 4 Extra, Sunday 10am, 9pm, 1am
Desert Island Discs: Kwame Kwei-Armah Radio 4
On Radio 4 Extra, DID continues its month-long series of interviews with actors with 2010’s edition with June Spencer, who plays Peggy Woolley in The Archers. And over on Radio 4, a new episode features actor and playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah.

Barbara Windsor Radio 2, Sunday 1pm
Elaine Paige is off on a six week long summer break, and standing in for her for the first two weeks is long time musical theatre actress Barbara Windsor (who’s also done the odd role in film and TV. I forget which.) Joining her will be The Stage reporter Matthew Hemley, who starts a new regular series looking at the major theatre news of the week.

Mr Blue Sky Radio 4, Monday 11.30am
A new sitcom — the first solo effort from Andrew Collins (BBC1’s Not Going Out) — sees Mark Benton as Harvey, a man who can’t help but be relentlessly optimistic, to the despair of his long-suffering wife (Rebecca Front).

Doctor Who: Cobwebs Radio 4 Extra, Monday-Thursday 6pm, 12am
In Jonathan Morris’s story (initially released by independent company Big Finish) Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor returns with one of his more successful TARDIS companion rosters. The Doctor has been travelling with Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Turlough (Mark Strickson) since third companion Nyssa left. A few days later for the TARDIS travellers, they meet Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) again — but for her, fifty years have passed. The dynamic the reunited team falls into is at once familiar, but different, as they explore an abandoned genetic research facility that hold the key to curing a disease that’s taken six billion lives. Another story with the same regular cast, Stephen Cole’s The Whispering Forest, starts on Friday.

Afternoon Play: Heart Radio 4, Wednesday 2.15pm
In Mike Bartlett’s play, recently retired primary school teacher Susan (Alison Steadman) is learning to find new things to fill her time, just as husband Steve (Nicholas Farrell) is finding that pressures of work are taking him to the brink of depression. Doesn’t sound all that great on paper, but Steadman and Farrell are generally incapable of giving poor performances.

Afternoon Play: The Death of Tom Inglis Radio 4, Friday 2.15pm
Lesley Manville returns to radio drama after 30 years in the tru story of a mother whose son suffers a brain-stem injury after falling from the back of a moving ambulance. David Morely’s sensitive script follows Frances Inglis (Manville) and her husband Alex (Phil Daniels) as Frances becomes increasingly convinced that the best way to relieve her son’s suffering is to allow him to die.

I wish there had been something like this when I was at school. The BBC and the Shakespeare Schools Festival are collaborating to create a competition for secondary school pupils to perform the Bard’s most celebrated speeches and monologues.

As Matt reports:

Off By Heart Shakespeare is inviting schools to nominate a student to perform a Shakespeare piece at one of nine regional heats, which are being delivered in collaboration with the Shakespeare Schools Festival. Contestants will be judged on their delivery and articulation and the nine winners from the heats will go on to compete at a televised final to be broadcast in 2012, as part of the BBC’s Shakespeare Season.

Competition contestants will perform one of 18 monologues, each of which is supported by example videos of contrasting deliveries — such as Ashley Thomas, aka Bashy, performing as Shylock in the video above — as well as a PDF containing the speech text and some guidance notes.

In addition, while the general fact sheets they have created are designed with teachers in mind, they do offer useful tips to anybody having to learn pieces off by heart, with or without any added complications of the work being in Shakespearean language. One PDF gives hints on analysing text, breaking it up in ways that will help you remember it — and, vitally, it recognises that not every memory technique works equally well for everybody. And another PDF includes some useful hints on warming up vocally.

At the ITV press launch of Red or Black, a new gameshow being produced by Simon Cowell’s company Syco last week, you could not move for the number of journalists filling the screening room in a swanky London hotel.

By comparison, journalists were not hard pushed to find a seat in the press room at last night’s BAFTA TV Craft Awards, held at The Brewery in London to honour the best talent working behind the camera in television.

The awards include one for best writer - this year taken by Peter Bowker - and another for best director of fiction, as well as categories recognising those working in hair and make-up, costume design and lighting.

They are given to the people who make the shows possible. Or to put it another way, there would not be any television without them.

So it’s a real shame that only a handful of journalists attended the ceremony.

Doctor Who: The Hand of Fear BBC4, Monday & Tuesday 7.40pm
As a tribute to Elisabeth Sladen, who died last month (read The Stage’s obituary and my own TV Today tribute) BBC4 shows Sarah Jane Smith’s last regular story from 1976 over two nights. Returning to present-day Earth, the Tardis lands in a quarry — unusually not masquerading as an alien landscape — where an explosion initially traps Sarah under rubble, but also reveals a mysterious fossilised hand. Eldrad, the alien whose appendage it is, hypnotises Sarah and a number of other humans into taking over the local nuclear power station, using the energy to rebuild Eldrad’s full form…

The first couple of episodes in particular stand up very strongly, helped by the cooperation of an actual nuclear facility to allow for some impressive location filming work. Judith Paris’ Eldrad remains one of the most impressive aliens that 1970s Doctor Who produced. It all goes a bit to pot when the action relocates to Eldrad’s homeworld, but throughout Elisabeth Sladen gives her all. It’s a fitting send-off to the best of the Doctor’s companions, both as character and as actor.

Glee E4, Monday 9pm
An extended edition of the high school musical comedy drama — although, while the US runtime stretched to an hour and a half, over here it’s just 75 minutes. Hopefully that’s due to fewer ad breaks rather than any edits to the show itself. It’s another Lady Gaga-heavy episode after Season 1’s Theatricality, using her recent track Born This Way to highlight two of the show’s ongoing gay storylines. And, for once, we get a British musical theatre number - As If We Never Said Goodbye from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard.

The Night Shift BBC4, Monday-Wednesday 10pm
Subtitled European programmes have been doing well for BBC4 recently, with both The Killing and Spiral performing well on Saturday evenings. But while we may accept crime dramas with subtitles, will the BBC4 audience, for all its supposed erudition, take to comedy in the same way? This 12-part Icelandic series, the first six episodes of which are being shown in double bills from Monday to Wednesday, follows three men working at a Reykjavik petrol station. As a description, it’s far drier and less funny than the programme itself, I understand.

Blue Peter BBC1, Tuesday 4.30pm
A chance for Doctor Who fans to gain an additional look behind the scenes of next Saturday’s Neil Gaiman-authored episode, as the winner of last year’s competition to design a new Tardis console has her design constructed for inclusion in The Doctor’s Wife.

The Apprentice BBC1, Tuesday 9pm
Yes, it’s outside TV Today’s usual remit, but one of the better and more addictive of the glut of reality shows is back. And there is a theatrical link to justify its inclusion here — contest Felicity Jackson runs the Surviving Actors series of conventions to help actors sustain and develop their careers.

The Shadow Line BBC2, Thursday 9pm
Last week’s opening episode had me intrigued and annoyed in equal measure. Clearly designed to set up a multi-layered story that will play out gradually, I found the dialogue quality to range from a forgivable heightened unreality to just downright awful. The questions posed by the first episode are just enough to make me want to continue watching, but last week’s episode didn’t really deserve the critical plaudits it was getting. Mind you, most of the same critics had seen at least the first two episodes, so things are likely to improve this week…

Saturday Play: A Change in the Willows Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
Ian Buchan updates Kenneth Grahame’s riverbank characters from The Wind in the Willows. Ratty’s home gets flooded because of rising water levels, while Toad decides to turn Toad Hall into an amusement park, complete with bouncy castles, water slides and a ghost. A splendid voice cast — Tim McInnerny, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Stephen Mangan, Andrew Sachs and Issy Van Randwyck — should make this highly listenable fun.

Desert Island Discs Revisited Radio 4 Extra, Sunday 10am, 9pm
While the Radio 4 show has a new edition with writer Molly Parkin at 11.15am, over on the digital sibling the archive plundering starts a season of programmes interviewing actors. First up is a 2005 edition, with Colin Firth sharing his eight records, book and luxury item.

Of course, you can hear his edition, along with hundreds others, on the Desert Island Discs website, which is one of the biggest timewasters — sorry, I of course meant “informative archive resources” — on the internet…

Classic Serial: The Prelude Radio 4, Sunday 3pm
Wordsworth’s epic autobiogrpahical poem is read, over two weeks, by Ian McKellen.

Afternoon Play: Father Brown - The Secret Garden Radio 4, Wednesday 2.15pm
Richard Greenwood plays GK Chesterton’s unlikely detective in a new adaptation to mark the clergyman sleuth’s 100th anniversary.

The Go Betweenies Radio 4, Friday 11.30am
This new comedy series about a modern London family, starring David Tennant and Sarah Alexander as divorced parents, started last week, but don’t worry - episode 1 will be available on iPlayer, and is also repeat on Radio 4 Extra on Wednesday.