10 1GT Friday November 13 2020 | the times
podcasts
I
f the premise of Jeremy Paxman’s
new show is that he finally
gets to interview people he
actually likes, then why is he so
mean to Michael Palin? “You’re
76, aren’t you?” he asks Palin
incredulously. “That’s far too
old to go travelling.” Palin
demurs: geography is interesting. This
prompts Paxman to muse combatively
(and he’s probably the only person
who can muse combatively):
“Geography is such a strange thing to
be a standard-bearer for... ‘colouring
in’, as it was known at university...
Theresa May’s degree.” Then they get
talking about death. Palin says he
thinks it’ll be a bit like when he went
under anaesthetic for his heart
operation. “You won’t wake up when
you’re dead,” Paxman points out.
Later, when Paxman tells Palin that
“the important thing in life is being
kind to people”, it dawns on you: this
is Paxman being nice. And I suppose,
compared with the time he asked
Chloe Smith whether she thought she
was incompetent or asked Michael
Howard the same question 12 times,
it is nice. In fact, being mean is a
way of being nice to people if you can
do it charmingly like Paxman. It’s a
good way of establishing intimacy.
Watching somebody trying to ask
Palin about his death in a sensitive
way would just be awkward.
The interview with Palin is probably
the best so far. Occasional descents
into grumpy old man territory will
amuse or annoy you (“If you drop
litter you’re the sort of person who
doesn’t give a shit about the sort of
surroundings other people have to livein,” Paxman fulminates). The episode
with the rule-loving inner-city head
teacher Katharine Birbalsingh
is enjoyable because Paxman seems
to have met somebody even more
ferocious than he is, rendering him
kittenishly compliant.
So far, a self-interested fear of
boredom has led me to neglect
narrative fiction podcasts in this
column, but this podcast is about you,the reader, not me, the podcast critic.
This column is a benign dictatorship.
I am your great helmsman and I rule
in your interests. And at last the great
helmsman has decreed that it is time
for a great leap forward into narrative
fiction podcasts [that’s enough
autocratic posturing — ed].
Tracks, in its fifth series, is the
award-winning BBC podcast that’s
supposed to have dragged audiostorytelling into the 21st century. It’s
all about err... a woman? Who has
a dream about a ship? Also she has a
brain tumour? And a child? Now she’s
in a nightclub? Also I think there’s
a mad Scottish woman with a gun?
What the hell is going on? Who
knows? Not me. And I’m paid to
know this stuff.
I’m back. Still not sure how much
sense any of it makes, but that doesn’t
stop it being perversely compelling.
By the end of the first episode the
outlines of a plot have begun to
emerge. The sinking ship is connected
to a shadowy medical conspiracy.Helen (the woman with the brain
tumour) investigates. If you’re
prepared to concentrate (and ignore
some of the cheesier dialogue) this is
gripping stuff.
Waldy and Bendy’s Adventures in Art
was one of the joys of the previous
lockdown. It’s hosted by the Sunday
Times art critic Waldemar Januszczak
and the art dealer Bendor Grosvenor
and comes out on Sunday, so you stick
it on while you make your dinner and
feel all erudite and soothed as your
stress about not being able to explain
Tracks properly to Times readers just
slips away...
Anyway, it’s back and better than
ever. The gimmicky bits about taking
virtual tours of museums have gone
and the Waldemar-Bendor double
act is improved. I like a bit of
interpersonal tension on a podcast
and Januszczak’s endless needling
of Grosvenor about his posh
background works excellently. Plus
there’s loads of great stuff about
Artemisia Gentileschi. It’s one of the
shows I never miss for a reason.Jeremy Paxman: “The important thing in life is being kind to people”
The presenter is
almost cuddly in
an interview with
Michael Palin, says
James Marriott
PHOTO BY DAVID M BENETT/GETTY IMAGES FOR DEBRETT’S AND AUDIHe’s probably
the only person
who can muse
combatively
The Lock In
with Jeremy
Paxman
{{{{(Tracks
{{{((Waldy and
Bendy’s
Adventures
in Art
{{{{{Paxman’s latest role: Mr Nice Guy