the times | Tuesday May 24 2022 11television & radio
Times Radio
Digital Only
5.00am Calum Macdonald with Early
Breakfast 6.00 Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell
with Times Radio Breakfast 10.00 Matt
Chorley 1.00pm Mariella Frostrup 4.00 John
Pienaar at Drive 7.00 Phil Williams 10.00
Carole Walker 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
Scott Mills 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 7.30 Jo Whiley 9.00 The Jazz
Show with Jamie Cullum 10.00 Trevor
Nelson’s Magnificent 7. Seven of Rhythm
Nation’s biggest hits, uplifting tunes and
essential throwbacks 10.30 Trevor Nelson’s
Rhythm Nation 12.00 OJ Borg 3.00am
Pick of the Pops (r) 4.00 Vanessa FeltzRadio 3
FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz
6.30am Breakfast
Petroc Trelawny presents the classical
breakfast show, featuring listener requests.
7.00, 8.00 News. 7.30, 8.30 News headlines
9.00 Essential Classics
Georgia Mann presents a selection of
music and features, including the second
of Kate Romano’s five sketches of
Vaughan Williams’s life and music
12.00 Composer of the Week:
Vaughan Williams Today
Donald Macleod and Ceri Owen offer a fresh
view of Vaughan Williams’s two wives —
Adeline Fisher and Ursula Wood — their own
creative lives and their role in the composer’s
success. Vaughan Williams (Sons of Light
— III: The Messengers of Speech; Four Last
Songs; 3 Impressions: II — The Solent; Let
Beauty Awake; In dreams; Infinite Shining
Heavens; Whither must I wander; and Bright
is the ring of words — Songs of Travel)
1.00pm Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
Highlights from 2018 Cheltenham Festival.
Cassadó (Suite for Solo Cello) Andre Ionita
(cello); Mozart (String Quartet No 21 in D,
K 575) Calidore Quartet; and Saint-Saens
(Septet for trumpet, 2 violins, viola, cello,
double bass and piano) Calidore Quartet,
Simon Hofele (trumpet), Daniel Storer
(double bass), Frank Dupree (piano) (r)2.00 Afternoon Concert
Flamenco singer Esperanza Fernández
features in music by Falla. Shostakovich
(Violin Concerto No1 in A Op77) Julian
Rachlin (violin), RTVE Symphony Orchestra,
Pablo González (conductor); Debussy (’Pour
le piano’) Beatrice Rana (piano); Falla (El
Amor Brujo) Esperanza Fernández (flamenco
singer), RTVE Symphony Orchestra, Miguel
Ángel Gómez Martínez (conductor); Artist’s
choice: Purcell (”From Rosy Bow’rs” —
from ’The Comical History of Don Quixote’)
Elizabeth Watts (soprano), Mahan Esfahani
(harpsichord); Anselm Ferrer (Lamentatio
— 1: Veneris Sancto) Cererols Choir, Marc
Diaz (conductor); and Rodion Shchedrin
(after Bizet) (Carmen Suite) BBC Symphony
Orchestra, Gergely Madaras (conductor)
5.00 In Tune
Pianist Marc-André Hamelin is today’s guest.
Including 5.00, 6.00 News
7.00 In Tune Mixtape
An eclectic non-stop mix of music, featuring
old favourites together with lesser-known
gems, and a few surprises thrown in
7.30 Radio 3 in Concert
Recorded at Wigmore Hall. Handel (Silete
venti — motet HWV.242; Concerto grosso in
F, Op.3 No.4); Vivaldi (Cessate omai cessate
— cantata RV.684 for alto; Concerto in A
minor RV.522, Op.3 No.8 for 2 violins from
’L’estro armonico’); Bach (Tilge, Höchster,
meine Sünden — Psalm 51 BWV.1083 —
based on Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater) Carolyn
Sampson (soprano), Tim Mead (counter-
tenor), Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen (director)
10.00 Free Thinking
The historical novelist Philippa Gregory,
historians Susan Doran and Nandini Das, and
literary scholar Adam Roberts join Matthew
Sweet at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry to
discuss the enduring appeal of Tudor history
and the role that historical fiction plays
in shaping our view of history (r)
10.45 The Essay: Adrian Edmondson
— Signs of Life
We learn how, as a schoolboy, Adrian
Edmondson tricked the bank, ran away
from school and almost got expelled —
all for the love of a bass guitar
11.00 Night Tracks
A soundtrack for late-night listening
12.30am Through the Night (r)Radio 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 Today5.58 Tweet of the Day
6.00 Today
With Amol Rajan and Justin Webb
8.31 (LW) Yesterday in Parliament
9.00 The Life Scientific
With the electrical engineer-turned-MP
Chi Onwurah (1/6)
9.30 One to One
Faranak Amidi from BBC Persian and DJ Eris
Drew talk about rave culture (1/6)
9.45 (LW) Daily Service
9.45 Book of the Week: Empire of
Pain — The Secret History of the
Sackler Dynasty
By Patrick Radden Keefe (7/10)
10.00 Woman’s Hour
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe talks for the first
time to Emma Barnett
11.00 The Dolittle Machine
The possibilities of creating a machine to
converse with animals
11.30 Black Roots
Rhiannon Giddens explores the black roots of
American folk and country music (1/3)
12.01pm (LW) Shipping Forecast
12.04 Call You and Yours
1.00 The World at One
1.45 Metamorphosis
The black soldier fly, which can transform
organic waste into protein (2/5)
2.00 The Archers (r)
2.15 Drama: Moving the Goalposts
Pam Ferris stars in Juliet Ace’s drama (r)
3.00 Short Cuts
New series. Short documentaries and
adventures in sound about waiting (1/8)
3.30 Costing the Earth
How the conflict in Ukraine is affecting
environmental work in the country (13/13)
4.00 The Amazing Life of Olaudah
Equiano
4.30 Great Lives
Anna Maxwell Martin proposes 1950s
strongwoman Joan Rhodes (8/9)
5.00 PM
5.54 (LW) Shipping Forecast
6.00 Six O’Clock News
6.30 Daphne Sounds Expensive
Phil buys a time machine (2/4) (r)
7.00 The Archers
Chris demands answers
7.15 Front Row
8.00 File on 4
The disproportionate use of police strip
searches against black teenagers (3/10)
8.40 In Touch
News for people who are blind
9.00 All in the Mind
Exploring the limits and potential of the
human mind (5/10)9.30 The Life Scientific
With electrical engineer-turned-MP Chi
Onwurah (1/6) (r)
10.00 The World Tonight
Presented by Ritula Shah
10.45 Book at Bedtime: Love Marriage
By Monica Ali (7/10)
11.00 Fortunately
Jane Garvey and Fi Glover chat
to fellow broadcasters
11.30 Today in Parliament
Political round-up
12.00 News and Weather
12.30am Book of the Week: Empire of
Pain — The Secret History of the
Sackler Dynasty (r)
12.48 Shipping Forecast
1.00 As BBC World ServiceRadio 4 Extra
Digital only
8.00am The Goon Show 8.30 King Street
Junior 9.00 The News Quiz 9.30 Chambers
10.00 The Raj Quartet. Paul Scott’s drama
11.00 Cook and Greenaway: In Perfect
Harmony. Celebrating the incredible careers
of the song-writing duo Roger Cook and
Roger Greenaway. See Radio Choice
12.00 The Goon Show 12.30pm King Street
Junior 1.00 Lady in a Fog 1.30 A Change in
the Weather 2.00 Clock Dance 2.15 Vanity
Fair 2.30 The Achalasia Diaries 3.00 The Raj
Quartet 4.00 The Museum of Curiosity 4.30
Chambers 5.00 North by Northamptonshire
5.30 Daphne Sounds Expensive 6.00 Just
Before Midnight 6.15 Never Trust a Rabbit
6.30 Soul Music 7.00 The Goon Show.
Neddie Seagoon leads an expedition to bring
back a yehti — from Yorkshire 7.30 King
Street Junior. A road accident at the school
gates causes chaos 8.00 Lady in a Fog.
Irish-American private eye Philip Odell is
investigating the suspicious death of his
friend’s brother 8.30 A Change in the
Weather. Crooks Jiffy Perkins and Burco
Madrid are on the run in the Lake District
9.00 Cook and Greenaway: In Perfect
Harmony. Celebrating the incredible careers
of the song-writing duo Roger Cook and
Roger Greenaway 10.00 Comedy Club:
Daphne Sounds Expensive. The sketch trio
hold a charity gala night 10.30 Mark Steel’s
in Town. The comedian heads to Whitehaven
in Cumbria, to create a stand-up show
tailored to locals. First aired in 2005 11.00
What Does the K Stand For? Comedy by
Stephen K Amos and Jonathan Harvey
11.25 The Comedy Club Interview 11.30
The Million Pound Radio ShowRadio 5 Live
MW: 693, 909
5.00am Wake Up to Money 6.00 5 Live
Breakfast 9.00 Nicky Campbell 11.00 Naga
Munchetty 1.00pm Nihal Arthanayake
4.00 5 Live Drive 7.00 5 Live Sport 7.45
5 Live Sport. Live French Open coverage
10.30 Colin Murray 1.00am Dotun AdebayotalkSPORT
MW: 1053, 1089 kHz
5.00am Early Breakfast 6.00 Breakfast with
Laura Woods 10.00 Jim White and Simon
Jordan 1.00pm Hawksbee & Baker 4.00
Drive with Andy Goldstein 7.00 Kick Off
10.00 Sports Bar 12.00 Extra TimeTalkRadio
Digital only
5.00am James Max 6.30 Julia Hartley-
Brewer 10.00 Independent Republic of Mike
Graham 1.00pm Ian Collins 4.00 Jeremy
Kyle 7.00 The News Desk 8.00 Piers Morgan
Uncensored 9.00 The Talk 10.00 Daisy
McAndrew 11.00 Piers Morgan Uncensored
12.00 Petrie Hosken 4.00am The Talk6 Music
Digital only
5.00am Tarzsa Williams 7.30 Lauren
Laverne 10.30 Mary Anne Hobbs 1.00pm
Chris Hawkins 4.00 Steve Lamacq
7.00 Marc Riley 9.00 Gideon Coe 12.00
Artist in Residence 1.00am The First
Time 3.00 Live Hour 4.00 JukeboxVirgin Radio
Digital only
6.30am The Chris Evans Breakfast Show
with Sky 10.00 Eddy Temple-Morris
1.00pm Tim Cocker 4.00 Gaby Roslin 7.00
Bam 10.00 Olivia Jones 1.00am Sean
Goldsmith 4.00 Steve DenyerClassic FM
FM: 100-102 MHz
6.00am More Music Breakfast 9.00
Alexander Armstrong 12.00 Catherine Bott
4.00pm John Brunning 7.00 Smooth
Classics at Seven 8.00 The Classic FM
Concert with John Suchet. John celebrates
the music of Emilie Mayer, with a
performance of her Piano Concerto by Ewa
Kupiec. Plus, works by MacCunn, Haydn,
Sibelius and Bizet 10.00 Smooth Classics
1.00am Bill Overton 4.00 Early BreakfastRadio choice
Ben DowellCook and Greenaway:
In Perfect Harmony
Radio 4 Extra, 11am
The anthem I’d Like to
Teach the World to Sing
featured in an iconic 1971
Coca-Cola commercial,
above, as well as the final
scene of the drama Mad
Men. This programme tells
the story of Roger Cook and
Roger Greenaway, its
British composers. Writing
for Cilla Black, Andy
Williams and the Hollies,
among others, the pair were
for many the sound of their
generation. This profile,
first broadcast on BBC
Radio Bristol last year,
hears from the two men
as well as fans including
the country star Crystal
Gayle and the broadcasters
Tony Blackburn and
Johnnie Walker.our tv newsletter
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thetimes.co.uk/bulletinsI
t’s sobering to reflect that when
Silent Witness launched on the
BBC, Tony Blair had yet to come to
power. God, I feel old. To mark its
25th anniversary series it exhumed
its original star, Amanda Burton, as
Professor Sam Ryan. To make her feel
at home it was set in Liverpool, where
she made her name playing Heather
Haversham in Brookside.
It was mildly thrilling and a little
weird to see Burton back, whiter of
hair but still as classy. I preferred the
Sam Ryan era, which seemed to havemore heft and less daftness, sticking
with pathology as the star attraction.
However, Burton’s main brief seemed
to be to emit a series of suspicious,
flinty looks to make us think that she
has got something to hide as the force
behind a new health app, which stores
people’s private data and tracks them
24/7/365. It sounded a bit sinister.
Could Sam be dodgy? Perish the
thought, but it’s where we’re being
directed at the moment.
It was good to see Burton and
Emilia Fox (as Dr Nikki Alexander) at
the same post-mortem, lightly sniping
at each other; like two Doctors in
Doctor Who meeting in a time void
and coming over all competitive.
“There’s supervising and there’s taking
over,” Nikki snapped at Sam. Ooh.
It’s also good that they’ve gone for
the nice, clean shooting of a health
secretary in an attack, which also left
Sam’s new husband, Jomo Mashaba
(Hugh Quarshie), injured, rather than
some gleefully exploitative sex murder.
“Did you handpick us to influence
us?” Nikki asked after Sam requested
that she oversaw the post-mortem,
behaving more like a detective than a
pathologist. “You can trust me, Nikki,”
Sam replied, not entirely convincingly.
Before long she was looking shifty
again. Still, after another murder in a
hotel room, at least Nikki got to pull
musclebound Jack Hodgson (David
Caves) into her digs to finish whatthey started. Nothing like watching
someone get shot in the back of the
neck to get you in the mood.
The paradox of Prehistoric Planet
is that it uses the most modern,
futuristic film technology to make you
believe you are witnessing something
from 66 million years ago. It feels like
time travel.
The loving attention to detail makes
it little different from watching The
Blue Planet or Dynasties, except that
the gorillas and lions were real and
this is CGI. But outstanding CGI, no
twitch of a bird’s eye overlooked. The
authenticity is helped, of course, by it
being narrated by David Attenborough.
Apparently when he watched the
nearly finished film he said, “I can’t
imagine how it would be possible to do
it any better,” and it’s hard to disagree.
Credit to them for not just going
straight for the dinosaur box-office
crowd-pleasers, the greatest hits such
as the stegosaurus, tyrannosaurus or
velociraptor. OK, I slightly take that
back. They do kick off with the T-rex
swimming with its five babies in
the sea off North America, until a
mosasaurus takes one baby for a snack
in a sort of homage to Jaws. But the
show takes as much care with the
lesser-known B-side beasts.
Yes, some of you may find the music
a tad annoying, but for sheer creative
effort and imagination the series
deserves five stars.A bit of competitive spirit peps up a post-mortem
DAVID EMERYCarol
Midgley
TV review
Prehistoric Planet
AppleTV+
{{{{{Silent Witness
BBC1
{{{((Amanda Burton returns in the 25th series of Silent Witness