Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

Irish voices on BBC Radio 4

  • 21-11-2013 3:44am
    #1
    Mr Pseudonym
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,237 ✭✭✭


    Every time I'm close to holding RTE Radio 1 in excessively high esteem, I chance across BBC Radio 4, and am brought back to my senses.

    Radio 1 is one of the things Ireland can be proud of: the balanced and earnest, agenda-setting Morning Ireland; the cultural stimulation of Arts Tonight and Sunday Miscellany; the almost literary excellence of some of the Saturday documentaries; the diversity of the weekend schedule: farming, business, world affairs, history; the debate that is nurtured across so much of its output. It has its flaws, but Irish life would be much the worse in its absence.

    However, Radio 4 leaves it behind in almost every way. The programmes are more succinct; the schedule fresher and more experimental; the presenters more professional; the time-keeping more precise; the range of topics significantly more diverse: comedy, philosophy, abstract thought, science, travel, drama, and so much more. In essence, more accomplished, and more intellectual.

    RTE needn't be too ashamed of being trumped by what is surely the bench-mark in talk radio. It doesn't help that R4 has a budget of over €100m. But it shouldn't be immune from criticism. By the time Arena comes on, listenership has fallen 90% from Drivetime's peak, to ~30k. Those post-7pm slots offer an opportunity to experiment, and potential to grow audiences. Academics are eager to talk about their work, and could surely be coaxed into a studio for a low-cost, pre-recorded discussion programme (see In Our Time). Those slots could also accommodate sketch comedy, panel shows, and drama. Why have so many "magazine" shows? Split Today with... into it's constituent parts: news discussion for first hour; culture, arts, and entertainment for the other. No one expects Radio 1 to dethrone Radio 4, but there are definite lessons it could learn from it.


    I thought it might be interesting to catalogue the occasions when Irish voices are heard on Radio 4. These are all I've got for the moment:

    Olivia O'Leary: talks to John Banville "about growing old" for One to One; Between Ourselves; Ireland: Boom to Bust.

    John Clarke - "an historian and blogger" - makes a fool of himself on Moral Maze (his contribution begins at 3:20)

    Mark O'Connell - academic and critic - considers the concept of Ambivalence on Four Thought

    Comedians Aisling Bea and Yasmine Akram retell ancient Irish stories using "thoroughly inappropriate modern-day metaphors", in Irish Micks and Legends

    Aoife McLysaght on The Infinite Monkey Cage, a light-hearted science show

    Patrick McCabe - novelist - Was Dracula Irish?

    Ruth McDonald - journalist - Ireland's Troublesome Priest's

    Fintan O'Toole: Yeats and Heaney: A Terrible Beauty and A Cup Of Tea A Sticky Bun and An Hour Of Gaybo

    Colm Toibin discussed his book The Master, on Bookclub

    Both O'Toole and Toibin have appeared on Start the Week.


Comments

Advertisement