the times | Monday October 5 2020 1GT 11
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Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell with Times Radio
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Sara Cox 6 .30 Sara Cox’s Half Wower 7.
Jo Whiley. A mix of new music and classic
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studio to chat 9. 00 The Blues Show with
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the blues scene, featuring the best of the
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6 .30am Breakfast
Petroc Trelawny presents Radio 3’s classical
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9 .00 Essential Classics
Ian Skelly presents a selection of music and
features, including Essential Five —
which this week focuses on great pieces
composed by Joseph Haydn
1 2.00 Composer of the Week:
Beethoven — Withdrawal (1770-1827)
Donald Macleod looks at Ludwig van
Beethoven’s life and career from 1816 to
1 821, a period when the composer was
heading towards another revolutionary
flowering of his creativity. Beethoven
(Piano Sonata No 25, Op 79: II Andante & III
Vivace; String Quartet Op 9 5 — Serioso, III
Allegro assai vivace, ma serioso; Sehnsucht,
WoO 146; Cello Sonata Op 102, No 1;
Variations on Ich bin der Schneider
Kakadu by Wenzel Müller, Op 121a)1 .00pm Live Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
A live recital from London’s Wigmore Hall,
with the pianist Llyr Williams playing music
by Schumann, Brahms, Liszt and Chopin. The
Welshman is widely admired for his profound
musical intelligence and for the expressive
and communicative nature of his
interpretations. He opens the concert with a
suite of piano pieces written by Schumann in
1931, inspired by Jean Paul’s novel
Flegeljahre. Schumann (Papillons Op 2);
Brahms (4 Klavierstücke Op 119); Liszt
(Années de pèlerinage, deuxième année,
Italie S161; and Sposalizio); and Chopin
(Mazurkas Op 59: No 1 in A minor;
Mazurkas Op 63: No 3 in C sharp minor;
and Ballade No 3 in A flat, Op 47)- 00 Afternoon Concert
The first of a week of programmes featuring
performances by the BBC Philharmonic, with
music by Rossini, Mozart, Schubert, Michael
Ball, Dorothy Howell, Coates and Bainton.
Rossini (Overture to The Thieving Magpiee);
Mozart (Violin Concerto in G, K 216);
Schubert (Symphony No 1); Michael Ball
(Euphonium Concertoo); Dorothy Howell
(Lamiaa); Coates (The Enchanted Garden
— ballet); and Bainton (Symphony No 2)
4.30 Early Music Now
The Jupiter Ensemble and the lutenist
Thomas Dunford perform Vivaldi. Vivaldi
(Armatae face et anguibuss, from Juditha
triumphanss, RV 644; Cello Concerto in C
minor, RV 416; and Gelido in ogni vena,
fromFarnacee, RV 711) - 00 In Tune
With music by the saxophonist Jess Gillam - 00 In Tune Mixtape
An eclectic nonstop mix of music
7 .30 Radio 3 in Concert
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performs
Bach, Arvo Part and Mendelssohn. Bach (Ein
feste Burg ist unser Gottt, BWV 303; and
Magnificat in D, BWV 243); Arvo Part (
Magnificat Antiphons; Fratres — version for
12 cellos); Villa-Lobos (Embolada from
Bachianas Brasileiras No 1); and
Mendelssohn (Trio & Double Quartet from
Elijahh; and Symphony No 2 in D minor,
Op 107, Reformationn) - 00 Music Matters
Tom Service marks the centenary of the
death of Max Bruch (r)
1 0.45 The Essay: Thinking Black
People who have attempted to transcend or
challenge the boundary of race
1 1.00 Night Tracks
Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents an adventurous,
immersive soundtrack
1 2.30am Through the Night(r)
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9.45 Book of the Week: Tom Stoppard
— A Life
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1 1. 00 The Untold
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1 1.3 0 Loose Ends
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1 2.01pm (LW) Shipping Forecast
1 2.04 The Housing Lark
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1 2.18 You and Yours
1. 00 The World at One
1 .45 Anatomy of Touch
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2 .00 Drama: The Tenderness of Boys
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vulnerability in song lyrics (3/5) (r)- 00 Brain of Britain
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4.00 I Was Basquiat’s Partner in Noise
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band with artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (2/3)
4.30 Beyond Belief
Faith in the modern world (8/8) - 00 PM
5.54 (LW) Shipping Forecast
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Presented by John Lloyd (5/6)
7 .00 The Archers
Jill makes a discovery that could change
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7. 15 Front Row
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8 .00 Surviving Unemployment
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8 .30 Analysis
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9. 00 Forum Internum
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1 2.3 0 am Book of the Week: Tom
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1 2.48 Shipping Forecast
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The Untold
Radio 4, 11amGrace Dent, above, presents
another run of the series
that looks at the untold
dramas of 21st-century
Britain. Sam Wilmot has
an unusual hobby. He goes
around the country rating
public benches. Are they
comfortable? Do they have
a good view? He has rated
almost 200 of them — and
posted his verdicts on his
Instagram page — so he
knows the best places to sit.
The page started as a joke,
but during the pandemic it
has captured the public’s
imagination. One of his
marking criteria is whether
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anyone. Now bereaved
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thetimes.co.uk/bulletinsMichael Palin:
Travels of a Lifetime
BBC Two
{{{{(Top Gear
BBC One
{{{((M
ichael Palin’s Around
the World in 80 Days
unleashed upon us a
heaven and a hell.
A heaven because this
was everything Lord Reith said
television should be — educational,
informative, entertaining — and a hell
because it spawned the celebrity travel
documentary monster, which serves
us an unceasing cycle of pampered
hasbeens being sent around the globeon the production company’s dollar to
tell us about their menopauses, their
egos and their bowels.
What made me so nostalgic
watching Michael Palin: Travels of
a Lifetime, a reflection on his Phileas
Fogg world tour of 1988, was
remembering how genuine and
unknowing he was, literally learning
on the job. No gurning former soap
actor pimping for the camera’s gaze
here. Palin’s encounters with people
from Egypt to India to China were
real, spontaneous and human, not set
up and goaded by some PA in a
headset. His series overflowed with
what is so often absent from the
modern sleb travelogue: charm.
In his diary Palin had written that
he felt nervous and “unsure of myself”,
knowing that it was only his
personality and whatever wit and
enthusiasm he could muster that were
carrying the project for nearly three
months. I had quite forgotten about
his shave from the blind barber in
India and the lovely moment he let
an elderly man listen to Bruce
Springsteen on his Sony Walkman.
But I think we all recall his
unfortunate toilet facilities aboard
that small boat, especially him.
I’m not sure that we needed the
talking heads to confirm how seminal
this series had been, but Simon Reeve
nailed it when he said that Palin
captured the truth that the sparks ofinteraction between humans are one
of the purest joys of travel. There was
more authenticity in one scene here
than in the entirety of many modern
travelogues. When Palin got home,
returning to the Reform Club in
London to mark where the journey
had started, they wouldn’t let him in.
Tells us a lot that, doesn’t it?
Top Gear marked its big move to
BBC One by roughing it in Bolton.
The trio went to Paddy McGuinness’s
home town and slept in their company
cars under duvets bought from Bolton
market. I assume making them stay in
their cars for 24 hours equipped with a
Shewee was Covid-driven, but it did
feel like an hour-long practical joke.
Maybe it’s because I’m a northerner,
but I enjoyed watching this in its
ordinariness more than any flashy,
budget-burning foreign jaunt,
which always make me wince at the
extravagance. Freddie Flintoff did,
though, manage to wreck that nice
Volvo, by being a boy racer. Maybe it
was the working-class vibe of seeing
McGuinness’s old council house
together with their schoolboy bum
jokes (they do genuinely seem to find
each other funny) that made it work.
However, the scripted studio pieces
are still terribly, bottom-clenchingly
stilted. But then I found them stilted
under the other lot who have now
gone to Amazon. What were their
Michael Palin looks back at his 1988 adventures on the BBC names again?A masterclass in celebrity travelogue charm
RYAN MCNAMARA/FIRECREST FILMS/BBCCarol
Midgley
TV review