LEAVE ‘EM LAUGHING: THE ROY CASTLE STORY
Radio 4, 11.30am
Those who know little of the life of Roy Castle other than his angry leaving of it — dying, a proud non-smoker, of cancer contracted over decades of appearing in smoke-filled clubs — will be pleased to know that the title of this two-part biography is rather more appropriate to the man. He could sing, he could dance, he could tell jokes. If you pushed him he could become one of the great children’s TV presenters. If you wanted to go further, you could see his career as one which, if written as fiction, could be dismissed as heartwarming showbiz cliché. And yet it was the truth. Bernard Cribbins presents.
JUST FOR THE LOVE OF IT
Radio 4, 1.30pm
Radio, at its best, touches the parts that never occur to other mass media. And, since the producer/presenter Bill Lloyd has come up here with the sort of programme that wouldn’t occur to anyone else, I think we’re talking the best of radio. It’s about the piano competition that takes placed in Fort Worth, Texas, in the years between the famous Van Cliburn contest, held in the same town. It’s strictly for amateurs, who are actually pretty good, of course, but it’s not their playing that makes Lloyd’s two-part series required listening. No, it’s the people themselves, and their stories. Where did he find them, and why can’t all documentaries be this good?