RADIO 9
Thursday, Radio 4, 11pm
Judging by the content — grown-up, but hardly “adult” — of its first series, the time slot for this excellent comedy does seem a bit harsh. Still, over the next nine weeks, long-distance truckers and insomniacs will be able to enjoy the amusing skits and parodies Johnny Daukes (the overvoice of Eurotrash, trivia fiends!) and Hils Barker have conjured up for their spoof radio station. Such as Snapshot Europe, which injects even more clichés into travel reporting than the real thing. And my favourite, South African Just a Minute, in which the contestants must speak for 60 seconds without mentioning snakes or sport. CHRIS CAMPLING
JAMMIN’
Saturday, Radio 2, 1pm
There are those who would cross a road rather than meet a Rowland Rivron programme, and there are those who appreciate the enthusiasm and energy, if nothing else, the man brings to his comedy musical programmes. And we will be looking forward to the next six Saturdays, the first of which sees the sound of Busted’s Year 3000 sung in the style of Neil Young.
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BRUCE AND ME
Saturday, Radio 2, 9.30pm
An hour for fans of “the Boss”. Sarfraz Manzoor talks to famous fans of Bruce Springsteen about why they would give their life for him, or at any rate happily cut a rug to his proletarian anthems (don’t want to go too far do we, Boss fan Tony Blair?) Others in attendance: Nick Hornby, Stephen King, and some bloke out of McFly.
TINY TIM
Tuesday, Radio 4, 11.30am
In 1968, Herbert Khaury had an unlikely hit with his version of the standard, Tiptoe Through the Tulips, singing in a fluting falsetto and accompanying himself upon the ukulele. And that was the least of the strange things about Khaury — stage name, Tiny Tim — as C. P. Lee shows in this entertaining, bizarre, unsettling and ultimately sad half-hour.
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BOOTHBY GRAFFOE IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
Tuesday, Radio 4, 6.30pm
The man named after a village in Lincolnshire returns for a six-week run of occasionally inspired comedy in the company of the veteran Steve Frost, the brilliant guitarist Antonio Forcione and a live audience.
HELLHOUNDS ON HIS TRAIL: THE ROBERT JOHNSON STORY
Wednesday, Radio 2, 10pm
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Robert Johnson, who went down to the crossroads and sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for becoming the greatest blues guitarist of them all (so they say), has his story told by Ramblin’ Paul Sexton. Why Ramblin’? Well, Johnson was dead at 27, but his story takes six weeks to tell. CC