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Telegraph
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Need some respite in these bleak times? These shows had me sobbing at my radio
Being an audio junkie, my ears are currently filled with little else but war. I tip my hat to the excellent, reactive work done by podcasts such as The Daily T, Americast, The Rest Is Politics (both UK and US) and The News Agents, who all may as well be broadcasting live, 24 hours a day at the moment. Yet while all and sundry on social media demand that you 'do not look away' from Gaza or Tehran or Tel Aviv, sometimes you have to. It was with some relief that I tuned into Moominsummer Madness (Radio 4, Sunday), the latest of Radio 4's delightful adaptations of Tove Jansson 's work, and the ideal way to mark midsummer. The plot was beautifully absurd, with a volcano causing a great tsunami to flood Moominvalley, forcing the Moomins to take refuge on, of all things, a floating theatre. You could look for analogies about refugees and displaced people and resilience in the face of oblivion if you wanted to, but why on earth would you want to? The world hardly needs analogies on those subjects at the moment. As the Moomins pootled about the flooded valley, fretting about marmalade and lost toothbrushes, the best thing to do was to switch off entirely and give yourself to the unsettling weirdness of a tale set in a land where the sun never sets. As with all of Jansson's work, it's for children and yet, at the same time, not entirely for children. There is a tweeness about the Moomins, and a childlike optimism that can be off-putting if you're not quite in the right mood, but there is always a darkness around the edges. As the volcano erupted, Little My (Clare Corbett) talked of children's toys being burnt, while she later enquired how Snufkin (Alex Waldmann) was going to 'settle his score' with the dreaded park keeper: 'What are you going to do with him? Hang him? Boil him?' The miserable Misabel (Rosanna Miles) sobbed at the water's edge as she pondered the beauty of the moon and 'all the sadness there is'. It's like Paddington having an existential crisis. The Moomins had no idea what a theatre was, so had to learn the hard way via a haughty rat called Emma (Naomi Wirthner) who declared, horrified, 'You don't know a thing about theatre!' I have heard countless Radio 4 dramas in my time, but rarely have I heard a production that brimmed with such life and vigour. And I can't recall a time when I heard a voice cast having such a whale of a time, particularly Samuel West as Moominpappa, who learnt all about the stage and decided that he simply must write a play (we've all been there). The script – adapted by Robin Brooks – was a gem. 'A theatre is the most important sort of place in the world,' said Emma. 'It's where people are shown who they could be if they wanted, what they'd like to be if they dared, and what they really are.' 'You mean it's a reformatory?' replied Moominmamma (Ann Bryson). On the other side of the world, where the sun has disappeared, they celebrated midwinter. There is no better way to mark this than by listening to the World Service's annual Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast (Saturday), which was marking its 70th anniversary. Began in 1955 by Donald Milner, the broadcast is intended for the few dozen hardy scientists and support staff at British research centres in the Antarctic. It is nothing more than messages from loved ones and a few music requests, but each year it somehow manages to make me sob. Listening to it, I feel like Misabel, overcome by the beauty of human endeavour and connection. They have broadband at the bottom of the world now, yet there remains something mysterious and romantic about broadcasting to people stranded, for 12 months, on a windswept rock. Cerys Matthews introduced the missives from the UK, aimed at Rothera base and South Georgia (including Bird Island with its four inhabitants – I hope they like each other), a patchwork of jaunty 'hellos', choked-up parents, proud grandparents, woofs and miaows, homemade poems and shanties, and private jokes. It's heartwarmingly nerdy and impossible to pick a favourite message: 'Nick and Anne say, 'Hope you're having a *cool* time'.' 'Please get rid of that awful beard, love Mum.' 'Don't get too hammered David.' The one that sent me over the edge was five words long. 'Hello son. I love you.' Between the Moomins staging some hammy cod-Shakespeare and the families of British scientists beaming their messages of love halfway across the world, the radio offered up a different perspective on humanity this week. It was much needed.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Daily T: What the Left gets wrong about Margaret Thatcher
She is simultaneously one of the most loved and hated figures in British history. But Margaret Thatcher certainly made an indelible mark on our and political commentator Iain Dale is the author of Thatcher, a new book on the Iron Lady, which seeks to bust some of the myths around our first female prime minister and introduce her to a younger and Gordon speak to Iain about his personal interactions with Thatcher – including coming dangerously close to vomiting on her shoes – and what she would have made of Brexit and Nigel Farage. Watch episodes of The Daily T here. You can also listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
The Daily T: London-bound Air India plane crash – what happened?
An Air India flight bound for Gatwick airport crashed not long after take-off on Thursday, with more than 50 British nationals on board. Local authorities said only one passenger, a British man, is currently known to have survived after shocking footage emerged of the plane hitting the ground and bursting into flames in Ahmedabad, Gujarat state. Prof Graham Braithwaite, director of aerospace and aviation at Cranfield University, told The Daily T the 787-8 Dreamliner appeared to have lost altitude shortly after leaving the runway. 'Even if an engine failed – which could be mechanical, it could be a bird strike – then the other engine is still enough for it to climb. So you'd still expect it to be able to escape the airport and then make a safe landing.' For the plane to have crashed, Prof Braithwaite said 'there will be multiple things that will have contributed'. The crash will have been made more deadly, he added, because it happened in a built-up area and in the first minutes of the flight when the aircraft was 'full of fuel for a very long flight to London'. Investigators will act quickly to gather evidence from the scene of why the crash happened. This includes the flight data recorder, often called a 'black box', which gives 'an instant read-out about what was going on in the aircraft'. 'It may not give you an instant answer as to why the aircraft crashed but, as an industry, we'd want to know straight away if there was a problem that might affect other flights,' Prof Braithwaite said. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner had an unblemished safety record until now. Prof Braithwaite calls it 'the most modern design in the Boeing fleet' that is 'very well-liked by its operators as a reliable aircraft'. Watch episodes of The Daily T here. You can also listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Michael Wolff: Trump is getting what he wants, conflict
There's never a dull moment in the White House when Donald Trump is the president. Elon Musk yesterday began 'offloading' from his role overseeing the 'DOGE' programme, after coming to the end of his 130 day limit as a special government employee. But rumours abound of a falling out between Musk and Trump, with the South African-born businessman criticising the president's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' in an interview yesterday, claiming that the programme of massive tax cuts would actually raise the federal deficit, undermining his work cutting government spending. In this episode of The Daily T, Kamal Ahmed speaks to Michael Wolff - Trump biographer and author of four behind-the-scenes books about the president - who explains why the president won't be unduly bothered by Elon Musk's criticism and the shock news that his global tariffs have been blocked by a US federal court. The Daily Telegraph's Chief US Correspondent Rob Crilly also speaks to Kamal from Washington DC, having been in Delaware to witness Joe Biden's first public appearances since his cancer diagnosis. Watch episodes of the Daily T here. You can also listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe to The Daily T newsletter for updates. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The Daily T: Police are just the start — Reeves' spending headaches will only get worse
With Rachel Reeves announcing her spending review in just two weeks, there's a desperate jostle for last-minute cash before budgets get drastically cut. Angela Rayner wants more money for social housing so that she can meet the Government's target for 1.5m new homes by the end of the parliament. Ed Milliband also wants more money so that he can meet Labour's pledge for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. But perhaps the most striking intervention comes from the UK's top police chiefs — including Sir Mark Rowley — who today warned that the government won't hit their targets to halve knife crime and rates of violence against women and girls, as well as to recruit 13,000 additional police officers, if budgets are reduced. However, with a £3bn increase in funding since 2016, as well as an extra 20,000 officers added to the force in the same period, do they actually deserve or need more money? Can Rachel Reeves juggle the twin requirements of bringing the economy under control, whilst also trying to placate her party and her fellow ministers' instincts to increase public spending? And is she being left swinging in the wind by her own Prime Minister? Labour also risks being outflanked by Nigel Farage, who this week promised to raise the two-child benefit cap and to fully restore winter fuel payments to pensioners. But as economist Tom Clougherty tells The Daily T, the Reform UK leader will come under scrutiny in the coming years to show his numbers add up. Elsewhere, away from Westminster, King Charles is in Canada at the state opening of parliament — and did he make a not-so-subtle dig at Donald Trump's ambitions to annex his northerly neighbours? Watch episodes of the Daily T here. You can also listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe to The Daily T newsletter for updates. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
