Hemingway and Priestley adaptations, film scores and New Year's Eve party playlists all make for a welcome interlude between Christmas and New Year festivities
If you've spent Christmas the traditional way – driving up and down the A1, flicking between stations, now is the time to discover shows for that special week of radio filler, otherwise known as the sleepy days post-presents and pre-new year. Some suggestions:
*The Sound of Cinema*, the BBC season that rumbled along Radio 2, Radio 3, 6 Music and the Asian Network for much of 2013, is ripe for re-picking through: Radio 3's Neil Brand and In Tune podcasts round up bits of the best – load up on Ennio Morricone, RD Burman and a history of the film scores used on Stephen King movies. Huey Morgan's fairly brilliant Blaxploitation special is conspicuous by its absence.
On the drama front, Ernest Hemingway's *The Old Man and the Sea* has been radio-fied by Simon Armitage for the Classic Serial slot on Sunday on Radio 4. Armitage has whittled down Santiago's unlucky fishing expedition to a meditative (read: slow) hour that promises to make you ponder. Or something. A bit more in the spirit of things is the Toby Jones and Frances Barber production of *An Inspector Calls* for the station's Saturday Drama; a JB Priestley whodunnit set in London 1912 – it's tinsel and fairylights compared with Hemingway.
Finally, there are the New Year's Eve party playlists put together by every pop station on the BBC. Radio 2 has Scissor Sister Ana Matronic doing disco, warming up for Tony Blackburn; Craig Charles and Nemone are the tag team on 6 Music. Radio 1, meanwhile, simply promises "popular party anthems". Too young to go clubbing, too old to pretend you would have a good time if you did. Listening to a special NYE megamix has two advantages over filling up the nation's nightspots to ring in 2014: the waheeeey factor is kept to a minimum and you're staying in and listening to the radio – at least it's not the Hootenanny. Reported by guardian.co.uk 12 hours ago.
If you've spent Christmas the traditional way – driving up and down the A1, flicking between stations, now is the time to discover shows for that special week of radio filler, otherwise known as the sleepy days post-presents and pre-new year. Some suggestions:
*The Sound of Cinema*, the BBC season that rumbled along Radio 2, Radio 3, 6 Music and the Asian Network for much of 2013, is ripe for re-picking through: Radio 3's Neil Brand and In Tune podcasts round up bits of the best – load up on Ennio Morricone, RD Burman and a history of the film scores used on Stephen King movies. Huey Morgan's fairly brilliant Blaxploitation special is conspicuous by its absence.
On the drama front, Ernest Hemingway's *The Old Man and the Sea* has been radio-fied by Simon Armitage for the Classic Serial slot on Sunday on Radio 4. Armitage has whittled down Santiago's unlucky fishing expedition to a meditative (read: slow) hour that promises to make you ponder. Or something. A bit more in the spirit of things is the Toby Jones and Frances Barber production of *An Inspector Calls* for the station's Saturday Drama; a JB Priestley whodunnit set in London 1912 – it's tinsel and fairylights compared with Hemingway.
Finally, there are the New Year's Eve party playlists put together by every pop station on the BBC. Radio 2 has Scissor Sister Ana Matronic doing disco, warming up for Tony Blackburn; Craig Charles and Nemone are the tag team on 6 Music. Radio 1, meanwhile, simply promises "popular party anthems". Too young to go clubbing, too old to pretend you would have a good time if you did. Listening to a special NYE megamix has two advantages over filling up the nation's nightspots to ring in 2014: the waheeeey factor is kept to a minimum and you're staying in and listening to the radio – at least it's not the Hootenanny. Reported by guardian.co.uk 12 hours ago.
