Listen with mother

‘Television makes your eyes go square,’ reports Will, one of my three nephews, avid listeners all. They’ve already got the radio habit (having had, of course, absolutely no pressure from their interfering aunt). They’ve discovered for themselves that listening to Sherlock Holmes’s ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’ is far more scary than watching Doctor Who. Radio, pipes up Tom, lets you paint the pictures in your head. Television just tells you ‘that’s how it’s got to be’. To get any pleasure from radio, though, you have to make an effort, focus attention, follow the plot. You have to learn how to listen. But what’s out there now for children? How are they supposed to experience the mind-enlarging world of aural communication by kilohertz, megahertz and gigahertz when so few radio programmes are made for them? How can they be persuaded that radio is worth paying attention to, as opposed to the pyrotechnic allure of Game Boy or the plastic charms of Wii? There’s nothing now on stations One to Four that’s been specially designed for young ears. No regular daily slots when children and parents can share a listening experience across the generations.

My nephews tell me that their favourite programmes are the old comedy shows now being endlessly repeated on BBC7, especially The Men from the Ministry and The Navy Lark. A bit strange, I thought, until I had a proper look at what else was available, or rather not available, for them to listen to. It’s also a reflection on how comedy has changed. They’re not interested in the Radio Four early-evening comedy shows because they just can’t find anything to laugh at in those slightly offbeat, often tasteless jokes. What they find hilarious is the idea of adults being zany or ridiculous; something that’s fast disappearing in post-bankbust Britain where we’ve all become too fearful of present possibilities and future uncertainties to really lark around.

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