Radio Highlights

Here are some highlights from things I’ve listened to on Radio 4 this week.

Woman’s Hour

Woman’s Hour offers interesting and varied programming through the week. There’s a female slant on most of the programming, but it isn’t the vacuous dribble that fills up the lunchtime real-life scandal magazines. I’m a culture snob, so for me it was a feast. I heard a fascinating piece about the sacred concubines of Hindu temples, the Devadesi, whose lives are changing, indeed - ever shortening, because of HIV.

Daunt and Dervish by Guy Meredith

Daunt and Dervish is a brilliant comedy drama series about two former World War Two spies, Josephine Daunt and Susan Dervish, who met up after the war and decided to form a lady detective agency. I enjoyed my first episode, serialised over the week on Women’s Hour. It’s set in 1953 at the time of the Coronation, and involves Russians, spies, film stars and scandal. There’s a full summary here, from which here are a few highlights…

“A scream comes from Belinda's dressing room. The door is locked shut and Susan Dervish charges it. Is Belinda dead...?”

“He thinks that her suicide was a set up though so that the director could pick up the insurance…”

“By the bank of the Thames, Bill sees a floating body...”

“Is he working for the Russians?…”

High melodrama, cloak and dagger, smoke and shadows – delicious distractions at my desk. Splendid stuff.