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Thursday 4 December 2008

Changing perspectives

Chatterton: The Allington Solution (BBC Radio 4); Ramblings (BBC Radio 4)

Ackroyd has such mastery of his material that in just 45 minutes he not only manages to entertain but also to send us away fizzing with thoughts about just how difficult it is to recreate past lives. First, says Ackroyd, you have to distance yourself from the cacophonous intrusions of the world around you; then you have to switch off your own ‘faculties’. Only then can you begin to ‘feel the shadows coming closer’, the ghosts of those who have come before us.

At one point, Mark Lawson, the cultural commentator and presenter of Front Row, appeared as himself, interviewing Allington’s much-despised rival historian, the author of a volume devoted to ‘The Romantic Tragedy’. It’s surprising how unsettling it is to hear familiar voices out of context. Last week, Clare Balding ended her much-missed Ramblings series with a walk to Herstmonceux Castle in the company of ‘a bevy of radio announcers’, Charlotte, Peter, Brian, Corrie and co. We know them so well from reading the news, for which they have to develop a kind of aloof authority, that to hear them larking around and chatting among themselves was very odd.

The team were walking to raise money for the Lymphoma Association and in support of the announcer, Rory Morrison, who has been suffering from a rare form of this blood cancer. Not so much a ramble as a walk for life. Their choice of route was apt — Herstmonceux (pronounced, we discovered from these guardians of the accentless accent, Hurstmon-soo) is the birthplace of the ‘pips’, those six electronic beeps by which we tell the time and which rule the working lives of the BBC’s continuity team. Balding asked her companions what was their vision of the pips, ‘what do they look like in your head?’ Charlotte ‘the Giggler’ Green replied that she thought of them as six little children clamouring for attention, ‘and the long one at the end is the cheeky one who sticks his tongue out’.

A final word for Humphrey Lyttelton, who’ll be so much missed on Radio Four, but who could as comfortably appear on Radio Two as Radio Three. His sense of timing as a musician and understanding of teamwork as a Big Band player ensured that he chaired I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue rather like a conductor, bringing out the best of his players while guiding the comedy. It’s so rare to find that blend of talents, both as a musician and wordsmith, without the accompanying development of too much ego. And better still he never failed to raise not just a laugh but a giggle as well.

More articles from: Kate Chisholm | this section

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