4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Farewell, Shereen, we will miss you - now Radio Scotland faces choice
You have to say that 17 years is a pretty decent shift on radio or anywhere else these days, so it is worth raising a glass to the presenter for her services over the years. She has certainly been a safe pair of hands.
The magazine format which Shereen's programme pursues now seems compulsory on Saturday mornings across the board on both TV and radio in the UK. But whereas Saturday Live on Radio 4 tends to stick to a lifestyle and human interest beat, Shereen's programme has always mixed the serious and un-serious together. And so on Saturday the show moved from a disagreement about a new Orlando Bloom film on Amazon Prime to discussing Labour's U-turn on winter fuel to a tribute to the late, great Beach Boy, Brian Wilson, to a discussion of the riots in Ballymena last week.
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Nanjiani and her guests, journalists Angela Haggerty and Paul McNamee and screenwriter Sergio Casci, have opinions on all of them. Well, that is the brief, of course.
Actually, all three contributors were very good. McNamee grew up in Ballymena and spoke with angry eloquence about what was happening in his hometown. But going from riots to some minor Channel 4 sci-fi show, does feel a bit strange, doesn't it? Or is that just me?
(A minor thing, but why is there always such an emphasis on talking about TV programmes on these radio magazine programmes? Of course people watch telly, but they also go out to gigs and read books and visit galleries. And they also listen to other radio shows. Why do they never talk about other radio shows on radio shows?)
In truth, I'm always slightly suspicious of programmes in which everyone has an opinion on everything. But that's because I often find it's perfectly possible not to have an opinion sometimes. Indeed, I manage to have no opinions on things all the time. (What do you mean that's obvious?)
So, it was rather refreshing on Saturday when Angela Haggerty admitted that she didn't know what she thought about the ongoing controversy around the development of a controversial holiday park at Loch Lomond.
All that said, Shereen's programme has always felt approachable and accessible, and a lot of that has been down to its presenter. So you could understand McNamee, a regular guest, getting rather emotional when he paid tribute to her.
'There's something very special about Shereen,' he said of the programme he has been appearing on for the last 16 years. 'It brings, I think, companionship. And when you're listening at home you feel as though you are part of something more … I think that is what will be what is missed most.'
Good luck with replacing it, Radio Scotland.
Radio drama can be, I accept, something of an acquired taste, but I have a fondness for light and breezy Radio 4 afternoon dramas because they were my introduction to the station back in the 1980s when my listening habits didn't, on the whole, stretch much further than Radio 1.
As a result, maybe some of my enjoyment of Katie Retford's Fran and Joe: Summer Fate on Tuesday afternoon was nostalgic. But Retford's drama series - this is the third and last in the series - is a sweet, warm account of a tentative romance between two primary teachers played by Fiona Button and Nikesh Patel (who's already played the love interest in Rose Matafeo's TV sitcom Starstruck).
The real star here, though, was Joanna Monroe playing Miss Pear, another teacher and potential matchmaker. Having appeared in both previous episodes, Christmas Wings and World Book Day, here she got to give a speech and seized the opportunity gleefully.
Indeed, she packed so much emotion into her minute or two of monologue that it overshadowed everything that followed.
That said, I love a good romance and this fitted the bill. For the most part it was just two people talking about love and grief in the rain. Turns out that's more than enough sometimes.
Nicola Benedetti (Image: free) Listen Out For: The Truth About Classical Music, Classic FM, Friday, June 27, 9pm
As the behemoth that is the Glastonbury Festival prepares to devour TV and radio, Classic FM offers an alternative with this new six-part series fronted by Nicola Benedetti. In it, the Grammy-winning violinist and director of the Edinburgh International Festival lifts the curtain on the world of classical music.
