A week in radio (original) (raw)

It's rare that 85-year-old Desmond Carrington is the whippersnapper in a double act these days, but in Icons of the Fifties (Radio 2, Wednesday), Carrington was joined by Sir Jimmy Young. It's a decade since Young, 90, left Radio 2 and his return – especially in the week the network announced Alan Carr is leaving his Saturday evening show – demonstrates controller Bob Shennan addressing older listeners as the BBC Trust urged him to.

The result was a sweet show of antique tunes cheerfully introduced with cobwebbed anecdotes, and some gently competitive banter. "Wakey wakey to Sir Jimmy Young!" Carrington joked at one point. He then referred to Young's stream of hit records in the 50s. "It's actually hundreds," Young insisted. It's a welcome addition for Radio 2's more mature listeners, but how many will tune in until 11pm or have online access to listen again?

Thursday's Afternoon Drama – Love Virtually (Radio 4) featured another duo, Emma (Emilia Fox) and Leo (David Tennant), conducting a strange romance – they've never met – through the medium of email. This was sharply written, funny and brilliantly played, so you believed in the connection between them in each of its twists and phases. Less credible was her husband's brief intervention and the idea that anyone conducting an affair by email, which is itself a bit last decade, would print the messages out and keep them in an unlocked drawer.

My current favourite radio pairing, though, is Mr Chairman (Chris Corcoran) and Rex the Caretaker (Elis James) on Social Club FM (Radio Wales, Friday), a very silly, very funny sitcom set in Britain's worst-performing radio station, broadcasting from a Welsh working men's club. They get into endless scrapes trying to outdo rivals Catholic Club FM and win listeners, but think they might be on to something with a new slot: Barry Island Discs. The first guest, a local PE teacher, chose eight records by Brotherhood of Man.