the times | Thursday December 3 2020 1GT 11
television & radio
Times Radio
Digital Only
5. 00 am Calum Macdonald with Early
Breakfast. A full briefing on the morning’s
headlines 6 .00 Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell
with Times Radio Breakfast. Wake up to
news, politics and entertaining conversation
10. 00 Matt Chorley. An insider’s guide to
politics 1.00pm Mariella Frostrup. Cultural
guests and big thinkers 4. 00 John Pienaar at
Drive. Conversation with political and
economic guests 7. 00 Phil Williams. Evening
headlines and conversation 10. 00 Carole
Walker. Late-night news 1. 00 amStories of
Our Times. The Times’s daily podcast 1 .3 0
Red Box 2. 00 Highlights from Times RadioRadio 2
FM: 88- 9 0.2 MHz
5. 00 am Vanessa Feltz 6 .30 The Zoe Ball
Breakfast Show 9 .30 Ken Bruce. Simon
Gregson picks the Tracks of My Years 12. 00
Jeremy Vine 2 .00pm Steve Wright 5.
Sara Cox 6 .30 Sara Cox’s Half Wower 7.
Jo Whiley. A mix of new music and classic
tracks, with guests dropping in to the studio
to chat 9. 00 The Country Show with Bob
Harris. A personal selection of music from
across the generations 10. 00 Trevor Nelson’s
Rhythm Nation. A mix of R’n’B and soulful
tunes 12. 00 OJ Borg 3. 00 am Sounds
of the 90s with Fearne CottonRadio 3
FM: 9 0.2- 9 2.4 MHz
6 .30am Breakfast
Music, news and listener requests presented
by Petroc Trelawny. Including 7 .00, 8. 00
News. 7 .30, 8 .3 0 News headlines
9 .00 Essential Classics
Ian Skelly presents another essential piece of
music for winter and more listeners’
suggestions inspired by well-known music
1 2.00 Composer of the Week:
Beethoven — Pain and Persistence
(1770-1827)
Donald Macleod continues to tell the final
chapters of his year-long biography of
Beethoven. He tells the story of how Johann
van Beethoven invited Ludwig to recuperate
at his country estate, hoping the two of
them could find a way to mend their broken
relationship. Beethoven (String Quartet in
Eb, Op 127, IV. Finale, Allegro; Piano Trio
Op 70 No 1 “Ghost””, III. Presto; String
Quartet Op 130 , movts. V & VI; Mass in C,
Op 86, I. Kyrie; and String Quartet in F,
Op 135, I. Allegretto & II. Vivace)1 .00pm Live Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
Georgia Mann continues the week of
Lunchtime Concerts performed live at LSO St
Luke’s by Radio 3 New Generation Artists.
Today, the jazz guitarist Rob Luft performs
with the singer Elina Duni and their band
2. 00 Afternoon Concert
Hans Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen.
Barbara Hannigan stars in the English-
language version of Hans Abrahamsen’s
award-winning opera, performed by the
Bavarian State Opera, Munich, and based on
the story by Hans Christian Andersen, with a
libretto by Henrik Engelbrecht. Gerda and
Kay tend a rose that grows in their backyard.
But one day tragedy strikes — Kay’s eye and
heart are pieced with fragments of a mirror
and then he vanishes. The Snow Queen has
him under her spell and it is up to Gerda to
free him. Abrahamsen (The Snow Queenn)
Followed at 3. 35 by more recent
performances from the BBC National
Orchestra of Wales. Per Nørgård (Iriss);
Prokofiev (Sonata for Solo Violin);
Webern (Pasacaglia/12:07); and
Nielsen (Clarinet Concerto)
5 .00 In Tune
Katie Derham talks to Nigel Short from
Tenebrae about their short film series, and
she presents a home session by the Heath
Quartet. Including 5 .00, 6 .00News
7. 00 In Tune Mixtape
An eclectic non-stop mix of music
7 .30 Radio 3 in Concert
The BBC Philharmonic continues its
exploration of the music of Schubert,
exploring the youthful exuberance of his
First and Third, contrasted with the darker
hues of his Fourth. Presented by Tom
McKinney, from MediaCityUK in Salford.
Schubert (Symphony No 4 — Tragicc;
Symphony No 3; and Symphony No 1)
1 0.00 Free Thinking
Des Fitzgerald hears from researchers who
are challenging the way people view a range
of medical conditions and experiences by
using the arts to get people talking
1 0.45 The Essay: New Ways
Through the Glens
Kenneth Steven looks at the ambitious
project to build a canal through the heart of
the Highlands along the Great Glen, linking
east and west (r)
1 1.00 The Night Tracks Mix
An adventurous, immersive soundtrack for
late-night listening, from classical to
contemporary and everything in between
1 1.3 0 Unclassified
Elizabeth Alker presents
1 2.30am Through the NightRadio 4
FM: 92.4-94.6 MHz LW: 198kHz MW: 720 kHz
5.30am News Briefing
5.43 Prayer for the Day
5.45 Farming Today
5.58 Tweet of the Day (r)
6.00 Today
With Mishal Husain and Justin Webb
8.30 (LW) Yesterday in Parliament
9. 00 In Our Time
The poet Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935)
9.45 (LW) Daily Service
9.45 Book of the Week: The Boundless
Sea — A Human History of the Oceans
By David Abulafia (4/5)
10.00 Woman’s Hour
Magazine show offering a female perspective
on the world. Including at 10 .45 Drama: Part
four of Karin and Andreww, by Melanie Harris- 00 Crossing Continents
Lucy Ash explores the world of the
balaclava-clad security officers in Belarus (3)
11.30 Behind the Scenes
The conductor John Wilson tackles
a Britten opera under lockdown (2/3)
12.01pm (LW) Shipping Forecast - 0 4 My American
By Stella Gibbons (4/5)
12.18 You and Yours - 00 The World at One
1.45 A History of the
World in 100 Objects
Neil MacGregor examines a lacquer wine cup
from China’s Han Dynasty (r) - 00 The Archers (r)
2.15 Drama: The Beneficial Owner
By Hugh Costello. An accountant who is
deeply in debt finds the offer to front an
anonymously owned company too tempting
to resist. John McAndrew stars (r) - 00 Open Country
A project in the remote valley of Redesdale
in Northumberland (7/16)
3.27 Radio 4 Appeal
On behalf of Wellbeing of Women (r)
3.30 Open Book
The latest publications (r)
4.00 The Film Programme
With Antonia Quirke
4.30 BBC Inside Science - 00 PM
5.54 (LW) Shipping Forecast
6 .00 Six O’Clock News
6 .30 Sarah Kendall:
Australian Trilogy Volume 2
The storyteller looks back at a series of
childhood memories (1/3) (r)
7 .00 The Archers
Eddie learns a valuable lesson
7. 15 Front Row
7 .45 Karin and Andrew
By Melanie Harris (4/5) (r)
8 .00 Brexit: Is it Oven Ready?
Exploring whether Britain is ready for the
end of the Brexit transition period
9 .00 BBC Inside Science (r)
9 .3 0 In Our Time (r)
1 0.00 The World Tonight
With Jamie Coomarasamy
1 0.45 Book at Bedtime: My American
By Stella Gibbons (4/5) (r)
1 1.00 The Likely Dads
The panellists discuss how to
keep kids occupied (6/8)
1 1.30 Today in Parliament
1 2. 00 News and Weather
1 2.3 0 am Book of the Week:
The Boundless Sea — A Human
History of the Oceans(4/5) (r)
1 2.48 Shipping Forecast
1. 00 As BBC World ServiceRadio 4 Extra
Digital only
8. 00 am Beyond Our Ken 8.3 0 Anything
Legal 9. 00 The Write Stuff 9 .3 0 Ed
Reardon’s Week 10. 00 Twenty Thousand
Streets Under the Sky 11. 00 Desert Island
Discs 1 1.4 5 David Attenborough’s Life
Stories 1 2. 00 Beyond Our Ken12.3 0 pm
Anything Legal 1. 00 Falco: The Silver Pigs
1 .3 0 The Left-Handed Sleeper 2. 00
Balancing Acts: Behind the Scenes at the
National Theatre 2 .15 Agnes Grey2.3 0 Ay
Mariachi! 3. 00 Twenty Thousand Streets
Under the Sky 4. 00 The Write Stuff 4 .3 0 Ed
Reardon’s Week 5. 00 Safety Catch 5 .3 0
Mark Steel’s in Town 6 .00 Methuselah’s
Children 6 .30 Great Lives 7. 00 Beyond Our
Ken 7 .3 0 Anything Legal 8. 00 Falco: The
Silver Pigs 8 .3 0 The Left-Handed Sleeper. By
Ted Willis 9. 00 Desert Island Discs 9.
David Attenborough’s Life Stories. Analysing
the songs of various animals 10. 00 Comedy
Club: Mark Steel’s in Town. Mark performs to
a remote audience about the highlights of
the series 10 .3 0 The Big Booth 1 1. 00 The
Kneebone Bonanza 1 1.1 5 Sir Henry at
Rawlinson End 1 1.3 0 Listen AgainstRadio 5 Live
MW: 693, 909
5. 00 am Wake Up to Money 6 .00 5 Live
Breakfast 9. 00 Your Call 10. 00 The Emma
Barnett Show 1. 00 pm Chris Warburton4. 00
5 Live Drive 7. 00 5 Live Sport 8. 00 5 Live
Sport. Autumn Nations Cup preview 9.
5 Live Sport: The Euro Leagues Podcast10. 00 Question Time Extra
Time 1. 00 am Dotun AdebayotalkSPORT
MW: 1053, 1089 kHz- 00 am Early Breakfast 6 .00 talkSPORT
Breakfast with Alan Brazil 10. 00 Jim White
and Simon Jordan 1. 00 pm Hawksbee
and Jacobs 4. 00 Drive with Adrian
Durham & Darren Gough 7. 00 Kick Off - 00 Sports Bar 1. 00 amExtra Time
talkRADIO
Digital only- 00 am James Max 6 .30 Julia
Hartley-Brewer 10. 00 Mike Graham - 00 pm Ian Collins 4. 00 Dan Wootton
7 .00 Kevin O’Sullivan 10. 00
Cristo Foufas 1. 00 am Paul Ross
6 Music
Digital only- 00 am Chris Hawkins 7 .3 0 Lauren Laverne
10 .3 0 Mary Anne Hobbs 1. 00 pm Shaun
Keaveny 4. 00 Steve Lamacq 7. 00 Marc Riley - 00 Gideon Coe 1 2. 00 6 Music
Recommends with Steve Lamacq 1. 00 am
6 Music Recommends with Lauren Laverne - 00 6 Music Recommends with Mary
Anne Hobbs 3. 00 6 Music Recommends
with Tom Ravenscroft 4. 00 6 Music
Recommends: The New Music Playlist
Virgin Radio
Digital only
6 .30am The Chris Evans Breakfast Show
with Sky 10. 00 Eddy Temple-Morris 1 .00pm
Tim Cocker 4. 00 Kate Lawler 7 .00 Steve
Denyer 10. 00 Amy Voce 1. 00 am Virgin
Radio Through The Night 4. 00 Sam PinkhamClassic FM
FM: 1 00 -1 0 2 MHz
6 .00am More Music Breakfast 9. 00
Alexander Armstrong 1 2. 00 Anne-Marie
Minhall 4. 00 pm John Brunning 7. 00
Smooth Classics at Seven 8. 00 The Classic
FM Concert with John Suchet. Zipoli
(Elevazionee); Liszt (Liebestraumm No 3);
Vaughan Williams (Folk Songs of the Four
Seasonss — Suite); Adam Saunders & John
Julius Norwich (The 12 Days of Christmass);
Grieg (Peer Gyntt Suite No 2); Hummel
(Concerto for Violin and Piano Op 17); and
Bach (“Jauchzet, frohlocket”” from the
Christmas Oratorioo BWV.248) 10. 00
Smooth Classics 1 .00am Jane JonesRadio Choice
Debra Craine
The Forum:
Alexandre Dumas
BBC World Service, 10amTo mark the 150th
anniversary of the death
of the great French writer
Alexandre Dumas, above,
the World Service pays
tribute to the man who
created D’Artagnan and
the Three Musketeers, the
Count of Monte Cristo and
the Man in the Iron Mask.
His gallery of heroes and
villains is among the most
colourful in literary history,
but his own life was no less
so. Rajan Datar finds out
that Dumas had a Haitian
enslaved grandmother
and a noble grandfather,
countless mistresses and
was frequently on the run
from debt collectors, despite
being one of France’s most
prolific writers.our tv newsletter
Sign up to a weekly briefing of
the only shows you need to watch
thetimes.co.uk/bulletinsT
he phrase “surviving Covid”
can be deceptive. It suggests
conquering the illness, a
chapter closed, when the
reality is that often it is still
fiendishly calling the tune, hobbling
the body for months. In Surviving
Covid, Nick Holt’s breathtaking,
brutally honest account of what it
is to be a ventilated Covid-19 patient
in hospital and the hurdles waiting
afterwards we got a sharp corrective
to the notion that leaving hospital
marks the end of the battle.Here were four men who had been
utterly floored by the virus, in comas,
shrunken, their organs besieged.
When two of them finally went home
from King’s College Hospital, south
London, months later it was as frail
husks of their former shelves. Sama’s
young daughter wept when she saw
her dad back in his armchair, barely
able to walk, feeling, I imagined, a
mixture of elation, anticlimax and
fear for the future, her parent now
the dependant. In a deeply moving
moment he cried too, possibly because
his daughter saw him differently now.
Such scenes are being replicated
around the country.
The story for some has only just
begun. This film was beautifully
put together with background music
for once used unintrusively and
judiciously (it usually ruins things).
The heroism of the medical team was,
as ever, jaw-dropping and so was the
devotion of the patients’ relatives.
Joaquín’s stepdaughter, Beatríz, was
a constant presence by his side. He
called her an angel from God.
However, it was David’s story that
was most painful. We saw photos of
him, still married to his childhood
sweetheart, Gill, and the life and soul
of the party at 62, but here in a bed, a
ventilator breathing for him, unable to
fight off the illness any longer. Then
we saw his funeral. The storytelling
was unflinching, but tender. “It nevercrossed my mind that he wouldn’t
make it,” said his wife, her best friend
gone. She had initially believed Covid
was “a made-up story”. If only.
Inside Cinema: Guilt-Free
Pleasures took a deep, sometimes
repetitive dive into so-bad-they’re-
good movies and asked: “Why feel
guilty about enjoying them?” Well I
don’t. Never have. If you can’t watch,
say, the abysmal mess that is Cats and
think, “They had $100 million, a
bunch of A-list actors and they turned
it into this dog’s dinner? My, that’s
satisfying,” then what is life about?
Catherine Bray’s documentary was,
though, an entertaining, authoritative
quick-fire romp through classic
stinkers such as Jaws: The Revenge and
Plan 9 from Outer Space that asked
what it is that makes a film laughably
awful. It is, we were told, when the
intent is serious, but it’s accidentally
dreadful that the failure becomes so
much more epic (and funny).
It absolved Showgirls because it is
praised as an ironic comment on
Las Vegas showbiz and got much
more serious about Roman Polanski
— great director, shame about raping
Samantha Geimer when she was just- It seemed to conclude that as long
as we watch his films not with guilt,
but full awareness, knowing what
he did and feeling that discomfort,
we can separate the art from the man.
Sama with his daughter, who wept when he returned from hospital Top work from the clips researcher.
Stark truths about the struggles of beating Covid
ZORA MARGARETE KUETTNER/SANDPAPER FILMSCarol
Midgley
TV review
Inside Cinema
BBC Four
{{{((Surviving Covid
Channel 4
{{{{(