David Hepworth on spies, ventriloquism, the north, and Richard Branson's powers of persuasion
To mark the 50th anniversary of Kim Philby's defection, Radio 4 Extra dips into the riches of its archive to present a raft of programmes under the title The Cambridge Spies. Via both documentary and drama, it reminds us just how much fun the broadcasting establishment has had over the years picking over that strange betrayal. *Rebels – Guy Burgess *(Saturday, 7.30am, R4 Extra) was first broadcast in 1984 when Burgess's old BBC colleagues were alive to bear witness to his charm, intelligence, promiscuity and smelliness. Their account chimes with Michael Gambon's marvellous portrayal of the same man in the 2005 World Service production of Alan Bennett's *An Englishman Abroad* (Saturday, 1.15pm, R4 Extra). This fictionalised account of actor Coral Browne's 1958 meeting with Burgess while on tour in Russia has them in a gloomy Moscow flat discussing mutual acquaintances in Mayfair and the impossibility of getting hold of decent jim-jams in the workers' paradise. The more time goes by, the harder it is to believe that this bunch of public schoolboys ever let their taste for rough trade lead them into the roughest trade of all, and had them believing that they could re-settle so far from St James's. This season, which also includes *Another Country* (Sunday, 1.30pm R4 Extra) – a 1981 production of Julian Mitchell's play about Burgess's school days – is a worthy use of the BBC's resources and the kind of thing Radio 4 Extra should do more often.
All businesses are expected to have a founding legend and the best bosses are the ones who tell that story most persuasively. Richard Branson was doing it long before the business schools thought of encouraging it. In *Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone* (Sunday, 8pm, 6 Music) he talks easily to the presenter about the early days of the Virgin label and their hilarious good fortune in finding Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells among their inaugural signings. He remembers persuading the timorous Oldfield to play a live show by offering him the keys to his Bentley if he got through the performance. It worked. Rock stars, no matter how otherworldly they pretend to be, can never resist a motor.
The biggest stars of the golden age of wireless were ventriloquists like Candice Bergen's father Edgar. This puzzles the contemporary mind and explains the title of *Yes,* *Nina Conti Really Is On The Radio *(Tuesday, 11pm, R4). If you haven't caught Conti and her performing monkey on TV (she's in Christopher Guest's Family Tree, due on BBC2 in July) you have to take the dummy on the basis of the audience's descriptions. Conti flirts winningly with the absurdity of the format. "Why has the studio manager put a microphone on me?" enquires the toy. "He clearly doesn't understand the concept of ventriloquism." The crosstalk is engaging enough for you to not care whose hand is up whose shirt.
*The North (And Almost Everything In It)* (Weekdays, 9.45am, R4) is Paul Morley's memoir of his upbringing on the outskirts of Stockport and an idiosyncratic rumination on what it means to be northern. He remembers how, when he went down to Margate to spend the holidays with a relative, "the sunshine seemed provided by Enid Blyton". That's the thing those who grew up in the south can never understand. The sun always seemed to come out as soon as you were south of Luton. It's bound to deposit a certain amount of iron in the soul. Reported by guardian.co.uk 15 hours ago.
To mark the 50th anniversary of Kim Philby's defection, Radio 4 Extra dips into the riches of its archive to present a raft of programmes under the title The Cambridge Spies. Via both documentary and drama, it reminds us just how much fun the broadcasting establishment has had over the years picking over that strange betrayal. *Rebels – Guy Burgess *(Saturday, 7.30am, R4 Extra) was first broadcast in 1984 when Burgess's old BBC colleagues were alive to bear witness to his charm, intelligence, promiscuity and smelliness. Their account chimes with Michael Gambon's marvellous portrayal of the same man in the 2005 World Service production of Alan Bennett's *An Englishman Abroad* (Saturday, 1.15pm, R4 Extra). This fictionalised account of actor Coral Browne's 1958 meeting with Burgess while on tour in Russia has them in a gloomy Moscow flat discussing mutual acquaintances in Mayfair and the impossibility of getting hold of decent jim-jams in the workers' paradise. The more time goes by, the harder it is to believe that this bunch of public schoolboys ever let their taste for rough trade lead them into the roughest trade of all, and had them believing that they could re-settle so far from St James's. This season, which also includes *Another Country* (Sunday, 1.30pm R4 Extra) – a 1981 production of Julian Mitchell's play about Burgess's school days – is a worthy use of the BBC's resources and the kind of thing Radio 4 Extra should do more often.
All businesses are expected to have a founding legend and the best bosses are the ones who tell that story most persuasively. Richard Branson was doing it long before the business schools thought of encouraging it. In *Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone* (Sunday, 8pm, 6 Music) he talks easily to the presenter about the early days of the Virgin label and their hilarious good fortune in finding Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells among their inaugural signings. He remembers persuading the timorous Oldfield to play a live show by offering him the keys to his Bentley if he got through the performance. It worked. Rock stars, no matter how otherworldly they pretend to be, can never resist a motor.
The biggest stars of the golden age of wireless were ventriloquists like Candice Bergen's father Edgar. This puzzles the contemporary mind and explains the title of *Yes,* *Nina Conti Really Is On The Radio *(Tuesday, 11pm, R4). If you haven't caught Conti and her performing monkey on TV (she's in Christopher Guest's Family Tree, due on BBC2 in July) you have to take the dummy on the basis of the audience's descriptions. Conti flirts winningly with the absurdity of the format. "Why has the studio manager put a microphone on me?" enquires the toy. "He clearly doesn't understand the concept of ventriloquism." The crosstalk is engaging enough for you to not care whose hand is up whose shirt.
*The North (And Almost Everything In It)* (Weekdays, 9.45am, R4) is Paul Morley's memoir of his upbringing on the outskirts of Stockport and an idiosyncratic rumination on what it means to be northern. He remembers how, when he went down to Margate to spend the holidays with a relative, "the sunshine seemed provided by Enid Blyton". That's the thing those who grew up in the south can never understand. The sun always seemed to come out as soon as you were south of Luton. It's bound to deposit a certain amount of iron in the soul. Reported by guardian.co.uk 15 hours ago.
