THE FROST YEARS
Radio 4, 11.30am
At the beginning of this four-part history of modern political satire, David Frost introduces his fellow historians — the politicians Denis Healey, Gerald Kaufman and Norman Tebbit — by mentioning their various and no doubt well-earned honours from a grateful nation. And in doing so he establishes a tone that, for all the brilliantly aggressive material he then trots out — and it is surprising how bitter and vindictive the satire of the early Sixties could be — puts the programme on the side of the very Establishment that satire was intended to undermine. Ironic, that.
THE MUSIC DIDN’T DIE
Radio 2, 8.30pm
Subtitled The Real Buddy Holly, this two-part series, packed with fascinating interviews that you may have heard before but I have not, attempts to provide a legacy for a rock’n’roll icon who died long before he had the chance to build his own. Holly, who would have turned 70 on September 7, was a mere 22 when he died in a light plane crash. Anyone who means anything in the world of pop is on hand to talk about what Holly’s music meant to them, from the Beatles (Paul McCartney and George Harrison) on down.