Radio Review: 2 May

To return to a recurring theme, technology is a wonderful thing. When regular radio broadcasting began in the 1920s, it was all live and listeners were tied to large teak boxes at home. Nowadays, I can download preview copies of programmes that haven’t gone out yet and tap out this review in the pub over a pie and a pint. OK, so we didn’t get jet packs, but this kind of future will do fine for me.

So there I was, looking at my techno-doodah in the boozer, looking for things to review, when I saw Essential Classics: Richard Bacon. I tried hard to imagine a title less likely to entice me to listen, and after a struggle, I came up with Enoch Powell’s Guide To The Kama Sutra.

Now, I’m all for making culture accessible, but such is my disdain for Bacon that I nearly upended the table. Still, I must listen without prejudice, so I downloaded the brief preview.

Bacon, bless him, seems to be putting on what he thinks is a Radio 3 voice when he speaks to Sarah Walker. Maybe he thinks this show is an audition for more rarefied things, and knowing Radio 3 these days, it probably is.

Bacon admits that he knows nothing about classical music and so has thrown open the music selection to his Radio 5 Live listeners.

As a result, I was half expecting Carmina Burana to figure extensively, but only ever referred to as ‘the Old Spice music’. So, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the Brodsky Quartet up first with Harold In Islington. Unfortunately, Bacon in telephone-voice mode reminded me of the Viz comic’s depraved and profane game show host Roger Mellie trying to convince bosses that he’s respectable and intellectual. Radio 3 is no bed for Bacon.

Essential Classics, BBC Radio 3, weekdays at 9am.
Follow Louis on Twitter: @LFBarfe or email him at: wireless@cheeseford.net