Friday Diary: Living Without TV
Shelagh Fogarty has forsaken TV for a week and this is what she found...
2 Sep 2011, 10:35
Switch on your Wireless!
Plug over, back to my telly ban. From mannered news programmes to woeful casting in some of my old TV favourites, I've been dissatisfied with most of it for a while now. The odd gem still surprises me - Francesco's Italy for example and ITV's Tonight on the scramble for university places distilled all the issues really well I thought. So off it went and the focus in the house changed.
I did more for a start. I know it's been said before but TV stops you while Radio accompanies you. Peter Taylor's Secret Britain on Radio 4 shone a light into rooms meant to remain unknown. We heard from the Civil Servant who'd been active during the Cold War. Even though he shared something of his experiences with Taylor, you could hear lines being drawn around every sentence. Second nature to him clearly. Most revealing was the much more recent, post 9/11 recruit to the Secret Service, an ordinary Muslim who sounded like any young London buck you might meet. He talked in general terms about his handlers and revealed they'd helped him with some problems in return for his loyalty. We were never going to get more on that but I've been wondering all week what the nature of that quid pro quo might have been.
French and Saunders on Radio 2 on Monday were a good listen. Their friendship made for an eavesdropping feel and the slot called 'Someone and their Mum' with Matt Lucas and his mother was great - warm and truthful. Five Live Breakfast is always on the menu, with the added relish of being in bed listening instead of up at cockshout presenting it. I texted the Editor an hour or so ago to tell him I'd been smiling throughout the interview with Dame Kelly Holmes and Hannah England, who won silver in the 1500 metres at the World Athletics Championship on Thursday. Holmes is her mentor and I've never heard her more fluent on air. I guess that's what joy does to some people. Radio that makes you smile at 7 in the morning - gold dust!
Nicky Campbell and Anna Foster had competition this week though. Some 'blow in' called Dale on LBC Breakfast. It's early days but he shows potential! Great coverage of the Athletics too on Five Live Sports Extra. Mike Costello, Mark Pougatch, Alison Curbishly et al painting wonderful pictures. I could go on. I listened to plenty more and broadcast a bit to boot. It's been great to deepen my lifelong love affair with Radio.
Libya is never far from the top of the news agenda and the thing which most struck me this week was the different reactions from men and women now that freedom appears to have been won. As young mothers beat on the doors of municipal buildings shouting angrily for salaries months overdue, equally angry men shout them down saying all they need is freedom. Not all men in Libya will be so impractical but for those women wanting to feed their children, it probably feels that way.
All the talk this week is of the end of Summer. Newspapers and magazines going on endlessly about 'coping' with this or 'surviving'
that. Never a fan of temperatures over 25 Degrees, I don't mind the chill in the air. I do, though, feel a little sad when I notice for the first time that it starts to go dark at 8.30 in the evening. Even so, I reckon I'll cope, and possibly survive!
With survival in mind I've embarked on a new twist in my exercise regime. I'm laughing out loud at calling it a regime mind you. I've decided as well as my swims ( bit infrequent of late) I'm going to walk as much I can within my daily routine. I did it a lot when I presented the Breakfast Show, inspired by the hardy Scot that is Nicky Campbell, and it made a big difference all round, including me being less round. New hours, new habits. Time to address the laziness. The best thing of all is that I can listen to the Radio while I ramble around London. Marvellous.
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