The author Katherine Rundell, writer of many excellent children’s books including Rooftoppers, is back presenting on Radio 4. Good. Rundell writes a gorgeous script and delivers it beautifully, her mellifluous tones transforming a straightforward radio show into something more atmospheric. Her topic for Saturday’s Archive on 4 was A Ghost Story for Christmas, and the programme was filled with spirits, but also with spirit – Rundell is fun.
Writer Jeanette Winterson was unafraid of talking ghosts, mostly because she lives with two of them. “One is rather timid,” she explained. “She’s quite companionable. And then there’s a wretched man… he’s really noisy and attention-seeking… He started switching the radio on in the middle of the night, which I really objected to. I said to him: ‘Look, you don’t have to go to sleep because you’re dead. But I do, because I’m not, so can we come to an accommodation here?’”
There was talk of Daniel Defoe, author of the first published Christmas ghost story, The Apparition of Mrs Veal, in 1705. Also, of course, of Charles Dickens. Not just A Christmas Carol.
We heard about another Dickens story, The Signal-Man. This was inspired by a real-life train crash in Staplehurst, Kent, in 1865, when an engine pulling carriages packed with people plunged off a bridge. Dickens himself was on the train – with his mistress and her mother – and helped the injured while frantically trying to hush up who he was with. “He knew his name would appear in the newspapers,” said Mullan. “He had to make sure his travelling companions would not.” The programme was full of lovely details like this. A show made to enjoy while driving along darkened roads.
The Grinch, a character irrevocably associated with Christmas, has made a strong showing this year. He’s all over adverts for Asda and McDonald’s, and for the past three years Audible has given him his own chatshow, ’Tis the Grinch Holiday Podcast. I love the Grinch, so it gives me no pleasure to report that ’Tis the Grinch isn’t very good. It’s not the fault of the actors, who are great, or the guests, who are fairly high-profile – Mark Hamill, Jameela Jamil – and give as good as they get. It’s the tone. Who, exactly, is this show aimed at? Children, you would have thought.
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Jeanette Winterson was unafraid of talking ghosts, mostly because she lives with two of them
But although it is far from X-rated, ’Tis the Grinch concerns itself with adult topics. Is there a child alive who cares about, or will understand jokes about, fusion restaurants that merge two different types of cuisine? And why is the Grinch getting upset about that? Or whether taxi drivers talk to him? Or if people have therapy? Children’s films and shows succeed when they pitch at both adults and kids. Here, though, old Grinchy seems to have forgotten the kids, his original audience. Shame.
Most series at this time of year are winding down. But here’s Time of the Week on Radio 4, popping up with a new series. A satire of women’s interest shows – OK, a satire of Woman’s Hour – it features Sian Clifford as host Chloe Slack. The latter is a bit of a diva but she (wo)manfully works her way through features such as: what women should be allowed to do on a new leap day; how ankles are making a comeback; and the return of the women of Britpop. Slack is delighted about her “wall of women”, featuring women of every single age from one to 100: “The full life experience of woman, all on one video call in front of my eyes! My eyes are literally full of women!” she burbles. So Woman’s Hour, I could actually imagine it happening.
This will irritate genuine cricket fans, but I’ve been using The Ashes as my go-to-sleep listening. The chuntering commentary is soothing. Occasionally, a wicket will wake me up, or a controversy about not giving a wicket, but I don’t mind that. There’s something really fun about waking up the next morning to learn what’s been going on, six and a half hours after you first tuned in. Listening to Aggers and Tuffers gently chatter on reminds me of being a kid, falling asleep on the sofa while the adults discussed things I didn’t care about. The drama is all secondhand and thus safe. The scares are once removed, and someone else is telling me about them. Just like a ghost story.
Photograph by Audible