The thing is, I have a good deal of trouble keeping up with the stuff on BBC Radio 4. Especially when there are so many other things that I listen too, and life also has other demands. . .
Here is a bit of fun. Tomorrow, Today! is a very fast paced comedy half-hour. It has to do with the production of a BBC radio science fiction drama series being produced in 1962. I must like comedies about acting companies, the recent Murder Unprompted was quite enjoyable. And in this one we again have vain foolish actors, etc.
As I said Tomorrow, Today! moves fast and covers a lot of plot during all the gags. Two men are killed, people are threatened with loss of work, Commies at the BBC!?!?, ancient theatrical curses, we find out what happen to all the honey bees recently (Atomic Man-Bees!), and the heartbreak on not having your own doll if your part is, "All other voices".
And that's just the first week. I guess we will have to wait until Today, Next Week to see what the future holds.
Check it out: Tomorrow, Today!
Monday, January 28, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
We Need to Talk about Kevin
This is a BBC Radio 4 play of the novel by Lionel Shriver, adapted by Anita Sullivan.
Maybe baby? Maybe not?
Perhaps this horror story, this worst case, will tip the scale one way or another.
But really, this between Eva and Kevin is really horrible. To be an unloved child. . .An unloved mother. . .
The Woman's Hour Drama slot is 15 minutes in length. This play ran to 10 parts. I have not been a big listener to the 15 minute multi-part plays, but with this one the format worked quite nicely. Maybe that is because the play is mostly a woman reading her letters to her husband. So a couple of letters per episode seemed to work well. The letters will then sometimes come to life as small scenes from them are dramatized, acted out.
The material is very dark and somewhat unusual. We are not so accustomed to hearing a mother speak so negatively about the experience. I was pleased to find the Lionel Shriver is in fact a woman. I didn't want this negative mother's voice to come from a man.
It appears the some of the motivation for this, the original book, is that Shriver, childless, was personally exploring the idea of having a child before it was no longer possible to have one. This result, in radio play form, is a mother and son melodrama that is quite harsh. It is a horror story of the worst that can happen.
I believe that for the most part it is genetically part of us to love out children. This helps us to survive, to keep reproducing. But does the experience make us happy?
I read a book last year called Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. In one section he discusses the parent/child issue and presents a graph on the results of two studies on the happiness of parents. It turns out that having children does not at all make us happy. generally the issues involved in parenting are difficult enough that the studies show that the happiness of the couple recedes when the children come and only returns to the same level when they leave the nest. Of course this is not a conscious experience of most parents because we must love our children and do, so we ignore the negatives.
As a listening experience the show is topnotch. Madeleine Potter rather underplays her Eva. That restraint makes her believable, more real. It is a wonderful performance, with difficult material. Nathan Nolan's Kevin always has the right tone of youthful wise ass pain.
So this is strong stuff which will not be for everyone, but I really enjoyed it as a very scary story, well told.
The last 5 parts are available on The Woman's Hour Drama page but will change into something else beginning Monday Jan. 21, 2008.
Here in an interesting interview with Lionel Shriver. She talks about her book.
Maybe baby? Maybe not?
Perhaps this horror story, this worst case, will tip the scale one way or another.
But really, this between Eva and Kevin is really horrible. To be an unloved child. . .An unloved mother. . .
The Woman's Hour Drama slot is 15 minutes in length. This play ran to 10 parts. I have not been a big listener to the 15 minute multi-part plays, but with this one the format worked quite nicely. Maybe that is because the play is mostly a woman reading her letters to her husband. So a couple of letters per episode seemed to work well. The letters will then sometimes come to life as small scenes from them are dramatized, acted out.
The material is very dark and somewhat unusual. We are not so accustomed to hearing a mother speak so negatively about the experience. I was pleased to find the Lionel Shriver is in fact a woman. I didn't want this negative mother's voice to come from a man.
It appears the some of the motivation for this, the original book, is that Shriver, childless, was personally exploring the idea of having a child before it was no longer possible to have one. This result, in radio play form, is a mother and son melodrama that is quite harsh. It is a horror story of the worst that can happen.
I believe that for the most part it is genetically part of us to love out children. This helps us to survive, to keep reproducing. But does the experience make us happy?
I read a book last year called Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. In one section he discusses the parent/child issue and presents a graph on the results of two studies on the happiness of parents. It turns out that having children does not at all make us happy. generally the issues involved in parenting are difficult enough that the studies show that the happiness of the couple recedes when the children come and only returns to the same level when they leave the nest. Of course this is not a conscious experience of most parents because we must love our children and do, so we ignore the negatives.
As a listening experience the show is topnotch. Madeleine Potter rather underplays her Eva. That restraint makes her believable, more real. It is a wonderful performance, with difficult material. Nathan Nolan's Kevin always has the right tone of youthful wise ass pain.
So this is strong stuff which will not be for everyone, but I really enjoyed it as a very scary story, well told.
The last 5 parts are available on The Woman's Hour Drama page but will change into something else beginning Monday Jan. 21, 2008.
Here in an interesting interview with Lionel Shriver. She talks about her book.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Snow in July
Snow in July takes us into the same sort of area as Advice for the Living. We have a character who is going to die sooner than the rest of us (hopefully).
Except here the story is presented in dramatic form and the main focus is on the likely to live longer spouse. It is a bitter sweet story of one who is struggling to find a way to accept it all and go on with living.
There is a certain hope in this aspect of the story, an embrace of change, and change is something it is best to come to terms with. Change being a constant.
There is another story here as well. A story of industrial pollution, it's tragic results years in the future, long after the polluters have gone out of business.
In Snow in July we have a beautiful combination of the personal story that pulls us in, and the bigger story of industry, law, and justice.
This excellent play by Alice Nutter can be heard here through Monday Jan. 14, 2008. Just click on the Tuesday button.
Except here the story is presented in dramatic form and the main focus is on the likely to live longer spouse. It is a bitter sweet story of one who is struggling to find a way to accept it all and go on with living.
There is a certain hope in this aspect of the story, an embrace of change, and change is something it is best to come to terms with. Change being a constant.
There is another story here as well. A story of industrial pollution, it's tragic results years in the future, long after the polluters have gone out of business.
In Snow in July we have a beautiful combination of the personal story that pulls us in, and the bigger story of industry, law, and justice.
This excellent play by Alice Nutter can be heard here through Monday Jan. 14, 2008. Just click on the Tuesday button.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Advice to the Living
Advice to the Living gives us the chance to listen to some very interesting. articulate, and educated. sooner-to-be-dead people talk about their attitudes and feelings about life. As a group they are generally rather upbeat about the issue. But I suppose when one is told that the inevitable is in fact imminent one has to become philosophical about having to leave everything . The thing is all of these folk are so bright and well spoken and kind of young, that one wonders what the old, stupid, inarticulate, or not thoughtful types think about it all.
One man says that his illness told him to, "Slow down, you move too fast, got to make the morning last." (Was I wise to take Simon's advice to heart years ago rather than have illness tell me?)
They say at the end that Advice to the Living is available as a podcast. That may be so. But I know that you can listen to the stream here through Wednesday Jan. 9th 2008.
I like these programs on Radio 4 that end with, "If you have been effected by the issues. . .".
I like to hear about these people's attitudes about death. I'm alive, therefore I am very interested in death. I think that is natural. Are there others that hardly give a thought to death? Do they just live or keep themselves super busy for distraction?
One man learned to go with the flow. He says that he is happier going with the river out to the sea rather than continuing to struggle onward and want more and swim upstream against the flow. I'm rather happy to hear the river used in a metaphor like this.
Of only we could have a follow up with some of these lovely people. Perhaps Radio 4 could somehow arrange for a post interview on the other side. . .wherever that may be. (Out at sea somewhere?)
One man says that his illness told him to, "Slow down, you move too fast, got to make the morning last." (Was I wise to take Simon's advice to heart years ago rather than have illness tell me?)
They say at the end that Advice to the Living is available as a podcast. That may be so. But I know that you can listen to the stream here through Wednesday Jan. 9th 2008.
I like these programs on Radio 4 that end with, "If you have been effected by the issues. . .".
I like to hear about these people's attitudes about death. I'm alive, therefore I am very interested in death. I think that is natural. Are there others that hardly give a thought to death? Do they just live or keep themselves super busy for distraction?
One man learned to go with the flow. He says that he is happier going with the river out to the sea rather than continuing to struggle onward and want more and swim upstream against the flow. I'm rather happy to hear the river used in a metaphor like this.
Of only we could have a follow up with some of these lovely people. Perhaps Radio 4 could somehow arrange for a post interview on the other side. . .wherever that may be. (Out at sea somewhere?)
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