the times | Wednesday December 22 2021 7television & radio
Times Radio
Digital Only
5.00am Early Breakfast 6.00 Times Radio
Breakfast. All the morning’s headlines 10.00
Matt Chorley 1.00pm Mariella Frostrup.
A fresh look at the issues shaping our world
4.00 Times Radio Drive. Conversation with
political and economic guests 7.00 Evenings
on Times Radio. Entertaining conversation
10.00 Carole Walker. The main stories of the
day 1.00am Stories of Our Times 1.30 Red
Box 2.00 Highlights from Times RadioRadio 2
FM: 88-90.2 MHz
6.30am The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show. With
Sue Perkins and Lee Mack 9.30 Ken Bruce.
Robert Plant chooses the Tracks of My Years
12.00 Chris Mason 2.00pm OJ Borg. Sitting
in for 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. Gabriels play
a Sofa Session for Jo, including music from
their second EP, Bloodline 9.00 The Folk
Show with Mark Radcliffe. With Mackenzie
Crook and Adrian McNally 10.00 Trevor
Nelson’s Pick N Mix 10.30 Trevor Nelson’s
Rhythm Nation 12.00 Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s
Kitchen Disco (r) 3.00am Sounds of the 90s
with Fearne Cotton (r) 4.00 Katie PiperRadio 3
FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz
6.30am Breakfast
The BBC Singers join Petroc Trelawny
as he announces the winner of the
Breakfast Carol Competition
9.00 Essential Classics
Georgia Mann presents a selection of music
and features, including the third of five
pieces written by their composers as
Christmas gifts to friends or family
12.00 Composer of the Week:
Mozart (1756-1791)
Donald Macleod explores Mozart’s late
operas, which were inherently provocative
and not received as the creative triumphs
that they are today. Mozart (Gigue in G
Major, K. 574, “Leipziger Gigue”; Le nozze di
Figaro — The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492;
Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551,
“Jupiter”: II. Andante cantabile; Don
Giovanni, K. 527; Così fan tutte, K. 588; and
Die Zauberflöte —The Magic Flute, K. 620)
1.00pm Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
The Amatis Piano Trio perform the
second of Schubert’s great piano trios.
Schubert (Piano Trio in E flat, D929) (r)2.00 Afternoon Concert
James Whitbourn (Christmas Welcome: In
die natalis Domini); Rene Veen (Es ist ein
Ros’ entsprungen); Roderick Williams (O Rex
Gentium); Sally Beamish (In the Stillness);
Ashley Grote (Lord of the Dance); John
Tavener (Rocking); Richard Allain (Dormi,
Jesu!); Matthew Owens (The Holly and the
Ivy); Francis Pott (Balulalow); Judith
Bingham (Tu Creati Domine); Marcel Dupré
(Variations sur un vieux Noël); Jamie W Hall
(Lisa’s Carol); Paul Edwards (No Small
Wonder); Errollyn Wallen (Peace on Earth);
Tim Sutton (Quittez, pasteurs); Haflioi
Hallgrímsson (Christ was Born on Christmas
Day); Michael Nicholas (‘Twas in the Year
that King Uzziah Died); Tobias Frank
(Les anges dans nos campagnes); and
Stuart Nicholson (I Saw Three Ships)
4.00 Choral Evensong
Live from Croydon Minster. Introit: Jesus
Christ the apple tree (Poston). Responses:
Radcliffe. Psalms 108, 109 (Randall,
Bairstow, Flintoft, Thalben-Ball). First
Lesson: Jeremiah 30 vv.7-11a. Office hymn:
Creator of the stars of night (Conditor alme).
Canticles: Evening Service in B minor
(Noble). Second Lesson: Acts 4 vv.1-12.
Anthem: O thou the central orb (Wood).
Hymn: Lo! He comes with clouds descending
(Helmsley). Voluntary: Improvisation
on Helmsley (Ronny Krippner)
5.00 New Generation Artists:
Winter Showcase
Ravel (Tzigane); Mendelssohn (Variations
Sérieuses in d minor Op. 54); Bonds (Songs
of the Seasons); Lionel Tertis (Hier au soir
— Pensée Musicale); Charles Aznavour arr
Luft (Hier Encore); and Mendelssohn
(String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80)
6.15 Words and Music
Poetry and prose associated with Spain (r)
7.30 BBC Proms 2021
From the Royal Albert Hall. George Lewis
(Minds in Flux); and Beethoven (Concert
aria “Ah! perfido”; and Symphony No 2) (r)
9.15 BBC Proms 2021
Rautavaara (Cantus Arcticus Op 61); Judith
Weir (Still, Glowing); Philip Glass (Mad
Rush); Arvo Part (Festina Lente); Johann
Johannsson (Good Night Day); Messiaen
(La Joie de la Grâce from Livre du Saint
Sacrement); Johann Johannsson (A Sparrow
Alighted on Our Shoulder); and Samy
Moussa (A Globe Itself Infolding) (r)
10.45 The Essay: The Meaning of Rituals
Whether certain rituals have a sinister side
11.00 Night Tracks
With Sara Mohr-Pietsch
12.30am Through the Night (r)Radio 4
FM: 92.4-94.6 MHz LW: 198kHz MW: 720 kHz
5.33am Shipping Forecast
5.43 Prayer for the Day
5.45 Farming Today
5.58 Tweet of the Day
6.00 Today
9.00 The Reith Lectures
Stuart Russell suggests a way forward
for human control over AI (4/4)
9.45 (LW) Daily Service
10.00 Woman’s Hour
Topical conversation with Emma Barnett
11.00 Rutherford and Fry
on Living with AI
Discussing ideas being raised in this
year’s BBC Reith Lectures (4/4)
11.30 Maureen & Friends
Comic monologues, musings and anecdotes
from Maureen Lipman (2/2) (r)
12.01pm (LW) Shipping Forecast
12.04 Joseph and the Three Gifts:
An Angel’s Story
12.18 You and Yours
1.00 The World at One
1.45 The Hackers
Exploring how hackers’ focus has shifted
from technology to social networks (8/10)
2.00 The Archers (r)
2.15 Drama: The Christmas Present
Written by and starring Ben Crompton.
A man wishes his life could be simpler —
which leads to him travelling in time to
discover how this could happen (r)
3.00 Money Box Live
Financial questions
3.30 All in the Mind
The potential of the human minds (7/8) (r)
4.00 Sideways
The ideas that shape individuals’ lives (8/8)
4.30 The Media Show
5.00 PM
5.54 (LW) Shipping Forecast
6.00 Six O’Clock News
6.30 Conversations from a
Long Marriage at Christmas
Comedy two-hander starring Joanna Lumley
and Roger Allam. See Radio Choice
7.00 The Archers
Jazzer has got stage fright
7.15 Front Row
8.00 The Moral Maze
8.45 Book of the Week: Taste —
My Life Through Food
Stanley Tucci pays tribute to the two
television cooks who inspired him (3/5)
9.00 The Young Farmers
A farmer in Warwickshire presents a
programme all about the harvest (3/3) (r)9.30 The Media Show
The latest news from the fast-
changing media world (r)
10.00 The World Tonight
Presented by Razia Iqbal
10.45 Book at Bedtime: Joseph and the
Three Gifts — An Angel’s Story (r)
11.00 Ruby Wax Talking Human
The comic discusses how the mind works
11.15 Sophie Willan’s
Guide to Normality
The comedian looks at what it is to be
“normal”, beginning with parenting (1/4) (r)
11.30 100 Years of Exile
Katy Long examines how refugee crises
might be brought to an end (3/3) (r)
12.00 News and Weather
12.30am Book of the Week: Taste
— My Life Through Food (2/5) (r)
12.48 Shipping Forecast
1.00 As BBC World ServiceRadio 4 Extra
Digital only
8.00am Hancock’s Half Hour 8.30 If You’re
So Clever, Why Aren’t You Rich? 9.00 Quote
— Unquote 9.30 All the Young Dudes 10.00
Midnight at Christmas 10.45 Nay, Ivy, Nay
11.00 Unsung Heroines 12.00 Hancock’s
Half Hour 12.30pm If You’re So Clever, Why
Aren’t You Rich? 1.00 Down Payment on
Death 1.30 Agatha Christie’s Dead Man’s
Folly 2.00 Maeve Binchy Short Stories 2.15
Children in Need: D for Dexter 2.30 We Three
Kings 3.00 Midnight at Christmas 3.45 Nay,
Ivy, Nay 4.00 Quote — Unquote 4.30 All the
Young Dudes 5.00 Ed Reardon’s Week 5.30
Mark Steel’s in Town 6.00 The Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy is 42 6.30 The Radio
Detectives 7.00 Hancock’s Half Hour 7.30 If
You’re So Clever, Why Aren’t You Rich?
Comedy with Richard E Grant 8.00 Down
Payment on Death. Thriller by Jim Eldridge
8.30 Agatha Christie’s Dead Man’s Folly.
Poirot learns of Ariadne Oliver’s mindless act
of cruelty 9.00 Unsung Heroines. Viv
Groskop reminds listeners of some of
history’s amazing unsung heroines. Last in
the series 10.00 Comedy Club: Mark Steel’s
in Town. Mark travels to the North Yorkshire
seaside town of Whitby. Last in the series
10.25 Comedy Club Extra. Lou Conran reveals
her Christmas List 10.30 Little Lifetimes.
A woman prepares a birthday cake for her
husband 10.45 Tim Key’s Late Night Poetry
Programme. The comic poet explores
superstition 11.00 Radio Active. The
team visits Nice 11.30 The News
at Bedtime 11.45 The Goldfish BowlRadio 5 Live
MW: 693, 909
5.00am Wake Up to Money 6.00 5 Live
Breakfast 9.00 Chris Warburton 11.00 Naga
Munchetty 1.00pm Mobeen Azhar 4.00 5
Live Drive 7.00 5 Live Sport 7.45 5 Live
Sport: Tottenham Hotspur v West Ham
United (Kick-off 7.45) 10.00 5 Live Sport
10.30 Colin Murray 1.00am Dotun AdebayotalkSPORT
MW: 1053, 1089 kHz
5.00am Early Breakfast 6.00 talkSPORT
Breakfast with Laura Woods 10.00 Jim
White and Simon Jordan 1.00pm Hawksbee
and Jacobs 4.00 talkSPORT Drive with Andy
Goldstein & Darren Gough 7.00 Kick Off:
Liverpool v Leicester City (Kick-off 7.45)
10.00 Sports Bar 1.00am Extra TimetalkRADIO
Digital only
6.00am James Max 10.00 Kevin
O’Sullivan 1.00pm Trisha 4.00
Cristo Foufas 7.00 Richard Tice 10.00
The Late Show 1.00am Paul Ross6 Music
Digital only
5.00am Chris Hawkins 7.30 Gemma Cairney
10.30 Festive Takeover — Robert Plant
1.00pm Craig Charles 4.00 Huw Stephens
7.00 Marc Riley 9.00 Gideon Coe 12.00
Freak Zone Playlist 1.00am The Upsetter
— The Life and Works of Lee “Scratch” Perry
3.00 Cillian Murphy’s Limited EditionVirgin Radio
Digital only
6.30am The Chris Evans Breakfast Show
with Sky with Stephen Mulhern 10.00 Eddy
Temple-Morris 1.00pm Tim Cocker 4.00
Kate Lawler 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 Anne-Marie
Minhall 4.00pm John Brunning 7.00
Smooth Classics at Seven 8.00 A
Westminster Christmas. A concert by the
Parliament Choir recorded at St John’s Smith
Square, London, earlier this month 10.00
Smooth Classics 1.00am Bill OvertonRadio Choice
Gabriel TateConversations from
a Long Marriage
at Christmas
Radio 4, 6.30pm
Marrying two of the great
radio voices, Joanna Lumley
and Roger Allam, above,
Jan Etherington’s Christmas
special finds the couple’s
plans for a quiet Christmas
rapidly ballooning in size
and ambition. It leans
heavily on the stars’
effortless chemistry and
hits the “observational”
in observational comedy
rather more regularly than
the “comedy”. But it slips
down like a post-prandial
sherry, the couple gossiping
about feckless neighbours,
missing departed loved
ones, engaging in panicked
shopping trips and bitching
idly at each other about
putting the bins out.our tv newsletter
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thetimes.co.uk/bulletinsI
n television terms, Prince Philip is
fast becoming the new Princess
Diana. Like her he is box office,
and there are clear and present
signs of a full outbreak of
documentaries that repeat the same
royal ground over and over again
(how he was Her Majesty’s “rock”;
how he was such a committed patron
of charitable causes; how he mixed
his own G&Ts, thank you very much).
The difference is in the tone. Diana
docs have a gossipy, tragic quality;those on Phil are about the virtues
of character. It gives them a more
inspiring feel, as last night’s Philip:
Prince, Husband, Father illustrated.
He was presented as a man who got
things done, and done for the right
reasons. Broadly speaking, it offered
little new about the Duke of Edinburgh,
but it had some good details, such as
a clip of him hosting a TV show —
Around the World in 40 Minutes in 1957
— the first royal to do such a thing.
There were typically colourful
quotes from Gyles Brandreth, never
shy of brandishing his intimacy with
the duke. He talked about Philip’s
interest in war history and how he
related to the Napoleonic idea that,
“If you want to understand the man,
you should know what the world was
like when that man turned 21.” Philip
turned 21 in 1942, so “he reflected the
attitudes of that wartime generation”.
In dealing with Philip’s efforts to
modernise the monarchy by putting
the royals on TV, the programme was
impossible to watch without thinking
of the family’s present mess with the
media. “You have to strike a balance
[between humanising and retaining
mystique],” we saw Philip telling an
interviewer, conceding that: “Through
the medium of this device, things
have become much more intimate.”
Philip actually hated the press
cameras, but he understood how to get
that balance right. He once explainedto Brandreth his ethos of dealing with
the media: “Talk about the projects...
what you’re doing, don’t talk about
yourself.” Hard not to salute that.
As for what Philip’s take would be on
this doc, the contributors agreed he’d
think it “another stupid programme!”.
It was a little bit more than that.
Agatha Raisin: Kissing Christmas
Goodbye was back for more villagey
sleuthing. With her helmet bob hairdo
and immaculate make-up and couture,
Raisin (Ashley Jensen) can seem
vaguely hyperreal as the cosy murder
shenanigans go on around her. The
victim was a ghastly drunken matriarch
(Maggie McCarthy) so awful to her
three grown-up children that she may
as well have had “dead by midnight”
written on her Christmas crown. In
fact, she lasted till about nine o’clock.
The set design, the props, the
colours were evidence of the love that
went into creating such a whimsical
confection, with witty details such as
a stuffed bear with a Christmas bauble
in its mouth. Every frame featured
baubles, or tinsel, or mince pies.
Quirkiness is Raisin’s raison d’être,
but things turned full ludicrous for a
climactic showdown in the kitchen
between Raisin and the killer, duelling
with candy canes. Silly, but it worked
because farce was the only logical
conclusion for this sherry trifle of a
crime mystery. At two hours, it was
just a lot of sherry trifle.The prince who put the royals on television
GETTY IMAGESJames
Jackson
TV review
Agatha Raisin
Sky Max
{{{((Philip: Prince, Husband,
Father
ITV
{{{{(Prince Philip playing polo in 1950. He was an all-round sportsman