Possibly the ponciest title I could find.
I was struck, today (metaphorically, you understand) as I was unloading the dishwasher.
On my own, in the kitchen, with the family phaffing about in another room, and the self-consciously eccentric Stanley Baxter Playhouse having just finished - I was joined by someone else: Nicola Walker.
She wasn't really in the room with me (that would have been weird and probably rather awkward) but I became utterly absorbed by her voice and the story she was telling.
It was the second episode of three of Annika Stranded, a new Scandanavian detective character (there weren't enough) whom the blurb says is "not as astute as Sarah Lund or Saga Norén perhaps, but probably better company". I think the blurb is right!
I had every intention of reviewing Desert Island Discs, with guest Aung San Suu Kyi - an excellent edition for lots of reasons - but I realised, bent over the crockery, I had become that most precious artefact, sought by every practitioner of radio from community station volunteer to World Service controller: an engaged listener.
Engagement is an over-used word in communications - but rarely happens with the consumer (in our case, listener) and if it does, not for very long.
It is true that there is more and more to distract us from what we ought to be doing - but that's one of the things that makes radio so tremendous. I was supposed to be emptying the dishwasher (Oh! The glamour of the blogosphere!) - which Twitter or the TV would probably have made a whole lot clumsier. A story being told to me and me alone captured me and my imagination and yet enabled me to do what needed to be done, dull as it was.
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| Nicola Walker |
No speech radio snob, here - a dose of Dan and Phill on Radio 1 or Christian's Choice Cuts on Absolute - might do a similar job, but for me it was the beautiful voice of Nicola Walker and the words of Nick Walker (related? Don't know...) which drew me in.
In the heady world of showbiz I occasionally inhabit, actors give credit to writers and writers (occasionally) to performers. The truth is, it's the synergy between the words, the voice and the technical jiggery-pokery which creates an arena for engagement. The sum of its parts, plus VAT.
All the programme makers left to chance was that bit of magic which kept the kids out of the kitchen for half an hour!
Annika Stranded is a beautifully crafted gem and I recommend you give it fifteen minutes when you can.
It's available on the BBC Radio iPlayer till Sunday. Each programme works as a short story, so it doesn't matter if you've missed the first in the series.
As ever, I'd be glad to hear from you, below. Is there an aspect of radio you'd like me to cover or discuss?
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