THE ODYSSEY
Radio 4, Saturday, 2.30pm and 9pm; Sunday 3pm
Well, you try and sum up two decades of warfare and supernatural wandering in fewer than four hours. Of course, the adapter Simon Armitage has had a lot of help from Homer, who distilled much of the action nearly 3,000 years ago. Armitage sets the story during the last month of Odysseus’s 20-year lost weekend (a lot of flash- backs, then), and it is a remarkable achievement, not least by the top-flight actors who include Tim McInnerney as Odysseus. Today’s listening, in particular, is a gruelling trial by whirlpool and warfare, Cyclops and Siren, so it might be an idea to have a bit of a lie-down after part one. Chris Campling
HOLD ON TIGHT, PLEASE
Saturday, Radio 4, 10.30am
The comedian Linda Smith wishes a happy 50th birthday and comfortable retirement to the Routemaster bus. Strange to think that soon a generation will grow up unfamiliar with the concept of the conductor, the windy staircase at the back and, not least, the joy (and occasional broken leg) of jumping off the rear platform when the bus passes where you want to get off, rather than the actual stop.
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BOOK OF THE WEEK: WODEHOUSE — A LIFE Monday, Radio 4, 9.45am/12.30am
Oh, yes, most definitely. Robert Daws reads Robert McCrum’s biography of Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, whose standing as a writer grows with the years, such that soon the chronicler of Wooster, Jeeves and Mulliner will be up there with Dickens and Shakespeare. Ironically, though, for a man who has given so much joy, he endured more than his fair share of grief. McCrum does not flinch, although you might.
NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL 2004
Monday, 1Xtra Live, midday
One of the last hurrahs of summer, and a harbinger of autumn and then ghastly winter to rank alongside any flock of birds, the Notting Hill Carnival is one of those mass celebrations of life, love and music that makes you glad you are listening to it all on the radio. Pray for a peaceful time and warm yourself with the knowledge that you are doing your bit by doing your dancing in the comfort of your living room.
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DEAD RINGERS SPECIAL
Monday, Radio 4, 6.30pm
That is the thing with Bank Holiday weekends — come Tuesday and the cupboard’s empty. So enjoy while you can this Dead Ringers one-off, recorded at Edinburgh, of uncannily accurate vocal impressions of the great, the good and Tony Blair, without being disappointed by the almost total lack of visual similarity, as seen on television. CC