the times | Thursday February 3 2022 11television & radio
Times Radio
Digital Only
5.00am 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 1.00am Stories of
Our Times. The Times’s daily podcast 1.30
Red Box. Matt Chorley’s politics podcast
2.00 Highlights from Times RadioRadio 2
FM: 88-90.2 MHz
6.30am The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show 9.30
Ken Bruce 12.00 Jeremy Vine 2.00pm Steve
Wright 5.00 Sara Cox 6.30 Sara Cox’s Half
Wower 7.00 Jo Whiley’s Shiny Happy
Playlist. Jo plays her favourite album tracks
and musical gems rarely heard on Radio 2
7.30 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. Plus, a session
by Ashley McBryde 10.00 Trevor Nelson’s
Rhythm Nation. The DJ introduces a mix of
R’n’B and soulful tunes 12.00 OJ Borg
3.00am Meat Loaf at the BBC 4.00 A Dance
Through the Decades 4.30 Vanessa FeltzRadio 3
FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz
6.30am Breakfast
Petroc Trelawny presents the classical
breakfast show, featuring listener
requests. Including 7.00, 8.00 News.
7.30, 8.30 News headlines
9.00 Essential Classics
Georgia Mann plays the best in classical
music, with discoveries and surprises rubbing
shoulders with familiar favourites
12.00 Composer of the Week:
Elgar (1857-1934)
Born and brought up in the English
countryside, Elgar never felt comfortable in
London, the heart of the nation’s musical life.
Presented by Donald Macleod. Elgar (The
Wand of Youth Suite. I. Fairies and Giants;
Violin Concerto in B minor. I. Allegro;
Piano Quintet in A minor. II. Adagio; and
Cockaigne — In London Town — Overture)1.00pm Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
The former Radio 3 New Generation Artist
Pavel Kolesnikov performs works by the
pianist-composers Beethoven, Liszt and
Scriabin, whose careers spanned the whole
of the 19th century. Presented by Kate
Molleson. Liszt (Wilde Jagd from Etudes
d’exécution trascendante; La Cloche Sonne
S.238; Vision from Etudes d’exécution
transcendante — No 6; and Wiegenlied S.
198); Beethoven (Sonata No 17, Op 31 No.2
“Tempest Sonata”); and Scriabin (Prelude
Op 48 No 2; Prelude Op 22 No 3; Danse
languide Op 51 No 4; Prelude Op 22 No 4;
Poeme aile Op 51 No 3; Mazurka Op 3
No 9; and Prelude Op 11 No 13) (r)
2.00 Afternoon Concert
Fiona Talkington with performances from
around the world, including Nielsen’s
third symphony from the BBC Scottish
Symphony Orchestra. Plus, more music from
the 2021 International Baroque Music Days
festival at Melk Abbey in Austria. Weber
(Overture — Oberon); Buxtehude (Membra
Jesu Nostri — Ad pectus); Brahms
(Variations on the St Anthony Chorale);
Birtwistle (Endless Parade); Nielsen
(Symphony No 3, Op 27 — Sinfonia
espansiva); Mozart (Violin Concerto No 5);
Rautavaara (Cantus Arcticus); and
Stravinsky (Firebird Suite — 1919)
5.00 In Tune
A selection of music, arts news and guests.
Including 5.00, 6.00 News
7.00 In Tune Mixtape
An eclectic non-stop mix of music
7.30 Radio 3 in Concert
Antony Hermus conducts the BBC SSO in
an orchestral version of Wagner’s Die
Meistersinger; and they are joined by
Benjamin Beilman in Korngold’s Violin
Concerto. Live from City Halls, Glasgow.
Presented by Jamie MacDougall. Korngold
(Violin Concerto); and Wagner, arr. de Vlieger
(Meistersinger — An Orchestral Tribute)
10.00 Free Thinking
Matthew Sweet is joined by guests including
Nathan Waddell to discuss the ground-
breaking Futurist branch of modernism
10.45 The Essay: Reading Ulysses
The writer Mary Costello selects an
excerpt from an chapter full of questions
and answers, known as Ithaca
11.00 The Night Tracks Mix
Sara Mohr-Pietsch with late-night listening
11.30 Unclassified
Elizabeth Alker looks ahead to the next
edition of Unclassified Live at the
Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
12.30am 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
6.00 Today
With Martha Kearney and Nick Robinson
8.31 (LW) Yesterday in Parliament
9.00 In Our Time
The Temperance Movement
9.45 (LW) Daily Service
9.45 Book of the Week: Free —
Coming of Age at the End of History
By Lea Ypi (4/5)
10.00 Woman’s Hour
Presented by Emma Barnett
11.00 From Our Own Correspondent
Reports from across the globe (2/10)
11.30 Taxi Drivers
The important but sometimes mysterious
role of ‘artist assistant’ (2/3)
12.01pm (LW) Shipping Forecast
12.04 Mrs Dalloway
By Virginia Woolf
12.18 You and Yours
1.00 The World at One
1.45 1922: The Birth of Now
Matthew Sweet reflects on Luigi Pirandello’s
1922 play Henry IV and the idea that truth
can be “what we say it is” (9/10)
2.00 The Archers (r)
2.15 Drama: This Changeling Self
By Linda Marshall Griffiths (r)
3.00 Ramblings
Clare Balding explores The Golden Road,
Pembrokeshire. See Radio Choice (1/9)
3.27 Radio 4 Appeal (r)
3.30 Open Book
Johny Pitts talks to the Russian-American
writer Gary Shteyngart (r)
4.00 Think with Pinker
Why getting it right might mean admitting
you are wrong. Last in the series
4.30 BBC Inside Science
The latest scientific research
5.00 PM
5.54 (LW) Shipping Forecast
6.00 Six O’Clock News
6.30 Plum House
By Ben Cottam and Paul McKenna (2/6) (r)
7.00 The Archers
Phoebe drops a bombshell
7.15 Front Row
Arts programme
8.00 The Briefing Room
Discusses big issues in the news
8.30 The Bottom Line
Business issues that matter (1/8)9.00 BBC Inside Science
The latest scientific research (r)
9.30 In Our Time
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the
Temperance Movement. Last in the series (r)
10.00 The World Tonight
With James Coomarasamy
10.45 Book at Bedtime: Mrs Dalloway
By Virginia Woolf (r)
11.00 Alexei Sayle’s
Strangers on a Train
The comedian takes a train journey from
Birmingham to Edinburgh and talks
to fellow railway passengers
11.30 Today in Parliament
12.00 News and Weather
12.30am Book of the Week: Free —
Coming of Age at the End of History
By Lea Ypi (4/5) (r)
12.48 Shipping Forecast
1.00 As BBC World ServiceRadio 4 Extra
Digital only
8.00am The Men from the Ministry 8.30
After Henry 9.00 Foul Play 9.30 An Actor’s
Life for Me 10.00 Reading Europe: Bride and
Groom 11.00 Desert Island Discs 11.45 The
Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry 12.00 The
Men from the Ministry 12.30pm After
Henry 1.00 The Toff on the Farm 1.30 Julie
Enfield Investigates: The Smithfield Murders
2.00 The Rule of the Land 2.15 Henry
James: The Wings of the Dove 2.30 Wrecked
3.00 Reading Europe: Bride and Groom 4.00
Foul Play 4.30 An Actor’s Life for Me 5.00
Ankle Tag 5.30 Plum House 6.00 Catch My
Breath 6.30 Great Lives 7.00 The Men from
the Ministry 7.30 After Henry. Comedy. Last
in the series 8.00 The Toff on the Farm.
Amateur sleuth Richard Rollison refuses to
be fobbed off 8.30 Julie Enfield Investigates:
The Smithfield Murders. Crime drama by Nick
Fisher 9.00 Desert Island Discs. Lauren
Laverne talks to the singer Melanie Chisholm
9.45 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry.
The second of a special two-part episode to
mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11
10.00 Comedy Club: Plum House. By Ben
Cottam and Paul McKenna 10.30 Brian
Gulliver’s Travels. Brian tells of his
adventures in a country where alternative
therapies abound 11.00 Listen Against. Last
in the series 11.30 The BooshRadio 5 Live
MW: 693, 909
5.00am Wake Up to Money 6.00
5 Live Breakfast 9.00 Nicky Campbell11.00 Adrian Chiles 1.00pm Nihal
Arthanayake 4.00 5 Live Drive 7.00 5 Live
Sport 8.00 Six Nations. A rugby union
preview of the 2022 Six Nations
Championship 9.30 5 Live Sport: The Euro
Leagues Podcast 10.30 Colin Murray
1.00am Dotun AdebayotalkSPORT
MW: 1053, 1089 kHz
5.00am Early Breakfast 6.00 talkSPORT
Breakfast with Alan Brazil 10.00 Jim White
and Simon Jordan 1.00pm Hawksbee &
Baker 4.00 talkSPORT Drive with Andy
Goldstein and Darren Bent 7.00 Kick Off
10.00 Sports Bar 1.00am Extra TimetalkRADIO
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5.00am James Max 6.30 Julia
Hartley-Brewer 10.00 Mike Graham
1.00pm Ian Collins 4.00 Jeremy Kyle
7.00 Kevin O’Sullivan 10.00 James
Whale Feat Ash 1.00am Paul Ross6 Music
Digital only
5.00am Chris Hawkins 7.30 Lauren Laverne
10.30 Mary Anne Hobbs 1.00pm Craig
Charles 4.00 Steve Lamacq 7.00 Marc Riley
9.00 Gideon Coe 12.00 New Music Fix with
Steve Lamacq 1.00am New Music Fix
with Mary Anne Hobbs 2.00 New Music Fix
with Tom Ravenscroft 3.00 New Album Fix
4.00 New Music Fix PlaylistVirgin Radio
Digital only
6.30am The Chris Evans Breakfast Show
with Sky 10.00 Eddy Temple-Morris 1.00pm
Tim Cocker 4.00 Amy Voce 7.00 Steve
Denyer 10.00 Stu Elmore 1.00am Virgin
Radio Through The Night 4.00 Sam PinkhamClassic FM
FM: 100-102 MHz
6.00am More Music Breakfast 9.00
Alexander Armstrong 12.00 Aled Jones
4.00pm John Brunning 7.00 Smooth
Classics at Seven 8.00 The Classic FM
Concert with John Suchet. Clarke
(The Prince of Denmark’s March); Beethoven
(Violin Concerto in D Op 61); Elgar (Polonia);
Haydn (Symphony No 94 in G); Debussy
(Reverie); and Rutter (Suite Lyrique)
10.00 Smooth Classics 1.00am
Bill Overton 4.00 Early BreakfastRadio Choice
Ben DowellRamblings
Radio 4, 3pmThe combination of Clare
Balding, the tramp of feet
and the rustle of
mackintosh has made
some pretty memorable
radio over the years,
proving that the simplest
audio formats are often
the most effective. In this
opening episode of the
new nine-part series
Balding, above, is in the
Preseli Hills, home of
Stonehenge’s bluestone
megalith quarries, on a
route taken by hardy
cattle drovers for centuries.
She’s in the company of
Nick Gammage, who in
the summer of 2021 spent
17 days completing the
entire 250-mile trek,
which he started with a
broken toe.our tv newsletter
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thetimes.co.uk/bulletinsT
he obvious, standout point to
make about Pam & Tommy is
that Lily James as Pamela
Anderson looks phenomenal;
just amazing. Her body
language (including her snaky tongue
work) is spot-on, her look a paean to
the talents of make-up artists and
prosthetic breast-fitters (we’ll come to
Tommy Lee’s animatronic talking
penis later, a sentence I never
expected to write).
As for the rest of it, let’s just say
that if you were coming to this show
hoping for nuance and texture in the
telling of the story of Anderson’s and
Lee’s sex tape, which went viral in the1990s after being stolen from their
house, then you were out of luck. Pam
& Tommy is upbeat and entertaining,
no question, but it is as superficial as a
Baywatch titty calendar.
Sebastian Stan’s performance as
tattooed Lee in his tiger-print thongs
and nipple piercings treating his
workmen appallingly is highly
watchable but wilfully one-note. I can’t
believe even famous rock stars are as
unpleasant as this.
Lee is the cruel King Joffrey of
Mötley Crüe, pointing a gun in the
face of carpenter and on-off porn
extra Rand (played by Seth Rogen)
until he wets himself. He rips the
workmen off despite rolling in money.
Is Lee really this much of a massive
dick (pun very much intended)? How
could anyone marry him if so?
The way he stalked Anderson,
licking her face as a first greeting and
feeding her drugs only hours after
meeting her, suggested he should get a
restraining order not a “yes” to his
hasty wedding proposal. Not that
Pammy didn’t seem to love all the
attention. James managed to portray
Anderson as a hybrid of airhead
hedonist and naive hick from a small
town in Canada.
In the first episode, Drilling and
Pounding, Rand is bent double making
the couple’s new bed while hearing
them have torrid sex in another room,
him driving the nails in as Pammysqueals in ecstasy. Do you see the
metaphor? Getting nailed!
If you wanted to take the moral high
ground you could say this series,
which has arrived with three episodes
and will offer weekly instalments
hereon, feels as voyeuristic as the
stolen sex tape debacle. But it is almost
too slight and shallow even for that.
Which brings us to the talking penis in
episode two, the moment in which this
series finally squandered any hope of
being taken seriously.
To be fair Lee does mention talking
to his famously generous penis in his
memoir but this creature was
ludicrous. It was a bending mini
anaconda operated by four puppeteers
(yes really) which implored its master
not to fall in love but keep playing the
field, stay aboard the “pussy train”.
Did it work as a light-hearted
concept? No, it was a shark-jump
moment, confirming one’s suspicions
that this was essentially a cartoon. A
polished, well-made and moreish one,
granted, but a tacky one all the same.
Not, to be fair, that it pretends to be
anything other.
Weirdly, when he first showed his
appendage to Anderson, she gasped:
“He’s beautiful.” Thing is “he” was
“non-excited”, perhaps unlikely when
a Baywatch star is naked before you.
Maybe that’s the only way they could
get it past the censors. I honestly think
it was best left in the mind’s eye.A romp as superficial as a Baywatch calendar
ALAMYCarol
Midgley
TV review
Pam & Tommy
Disney+
{{(((Lily James produces a spot-on Pamela Anderson in Pam & Tommy