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Jane Garvey and BBC Radio Sheffield’s Paulette Edwards: ‘a beaming smile and a wry grin.’
Jane Garvey and BBC Radio Sheffield’s Paulette Edwards: ‘a beaming smile and a wry grin.’
Jane Garvey and BBC Radio Sheffield’s Paulette Edwards: ‘a beaming smile and a wry grin.’

The week in radio and podcasts: Woman’s Hour; Atlanta Monster; Today

This article is more than 6 years old

Jane Garvey and co’s series on menopause was insightful and witty, while a new US true-crime podcast wisely takes its time to build a narrative

Woman’s Hour: The Menopause (Radio 4) | iPlayer
Atlanta Monster | atlantamonster.com
Today (Radio 4) | iPlayer

I do love middle-aged women. For many years, the woman d’un certain age was dismissed as pathetic – mutton dressed as lamb, the butt of mother-in-law jokes – but as I myself morph into one of these derided figures, I find myself caring little about how I’m viewed. And I also find other middle-aged women really interesting. They talk straight, mostly because none of them has much time. Honesty is bracing.

Actually, the other day a friend told me of bringing home a new man. Things were getting steamy when he suddenly felt something unfamiliar. “What’s that?” he said, in all innocence. It was the HRT patch on her bum. Men don’t know much about menopause.

But, then, despite their straight talking, neither do women. So thank goodness for Woman’s Hour, which has been shining light on this topic all week. Menopause week! It doesn’t sound too thrilling, but the shows have been riveting. Several phrases stick in my head, like lines from Victoria Wood. “I thought I’d caught something nasty, in Egypt”; “She said: I can’t decide which knickers to put on in the morning”; “You need to be using moisturiser on your vagina”.

Anyway, it turns out that nearly all of us are ignorant of what menopause does or means. As part of its research, Woman’s Hour, with Radio Sheffield, commissioned a poll. On Tuesday’s programme they gave us the results. Seventy two per cent of those surveyed said that they didn’t have a good understanding of menopause. Almost half said that their mental health had suffered due to going through it. As host Jane Garvey didn’t say – she’s too pragmatic – “What fresh hell is this?”

Garvey, 53, is herself menopausal. She wakes up with The Fear in the middle of the night (“Seventeen minutes past three is a particular favourite,” she said) and she, too, has an HRT patch. Her co-presenter, Radio Sheffield’s Paulette Edwards, also 53, said she was “doing the hokey cokey” with the menopause. Edwards was an upbeat presence, a beaming smile to Garvey’s wry grin. I must say I like Garvey even more now she’s hit menopause. Her patience is even shorter, her wit more caustic.

Woman’s Hour can infuriate and bore, but these programmes were just the right mixture of information, sympathy and laughs. There are those that think the show never stops talking about menopause (“We’ve been banging on about it for years,” said Garvey), but a week-long examination of the subject draws your attention, makes you want to listen. A revelation.

Perhaps all that women’s health stuff doesn’t turn you on. How about a spot of murder, instead? Atlanta Monster is a new podcast that takes that familiar podcasting trope – the re-examination of a long cold case – and makes it better. It’s made by the producers of science podcast HowStuffWorks, which perhaps explains why it’s less lip-smacking over the murder details (a relief). In the late 1980s in Atlanta, young black lads would disappear and then be found dead months later. It took a while for anyone to mention the term serial killer, but once it was mentioned, the stakes became big. Rewards were offered. Frank Sinatra staged a benefit. The press was everywhere.

Atlanta Monster is a slow mover. Episode 3 is coming up and it’s still talking context. But that’s because the context is so fascinating. Racial divisions within Atlanta are explored, police assumptions are questioned. We are reminded of the wacky confidence that law-enforcement agencies had back then in psychics (“He keeps himself neat,” intoned one). This is a cut above most true-crime podcasts. I hope it sustains that level.

John Humphrys: too old-fashioned for Today?

Is the Today programme sustaining itself? I wonder. I’ve lost count of people telling me they can’t listen any more. Too Brexit, too confrontational, idiotic on culture, John Humphrys is unbearable… Personally, I’m still an on-off fan. Mishal Hussein’s report from the Kutupalong refugee camps was excellent last week, as was Humphrys’s skewering of the ridiculous Ukip leader Henry Bolton. Some of the easy familiarity of the programme has been lost because of the rotating cast of new presenters, especially as every replacement seems posher than the last

And there are more famous guests on Today since Sarah Sands took over as editor last summer – Martin Amis springs to mind – but why? What’s the point in having them on if you don’t know why they’re there? Plus there is still a lot of justified anger about gender inequalities on pay, and the way Carrie Gracie was treated by the programme recently. It does seem as though Humphrys – long-established, well-respected, tough-talking, old-fashioned – has come to epitomise ye olde BBC. Many listeners are no longer happy with him. We shall see.

Off Today? My five alternatives

The Daily, New York Times
The highly regarded New York Times news podcast gives a 20-minute insight into one of the paper’s lead stories, plus a couple of smaller stories at the end. Host Michael Barbaro talks to whichever journalist is working on the biggie, interestingly and informally (you often hear the journalist pick up the phone, or leave because there’s a news conference). You get context, opinion, and excellent reporting. There’s a US bias, but with Trump in power, that’s fine. Friday 12 Jan’s episode on Trump’s “shithole” conference was the most informative I’ve heard. I subscribe.

Global News Podcast, BBC World Service
This World Service podcast is refreshing for its scope. Half an hour of proper news from far away places will give Little Englanders perspective about our own small concerns; plus you get two episodes a day. Learn about the Serb politician shot in Kosovo, the riots in Venezuela, what Turkey thinks of the US security plans for Syria… Sober and informative, this programme couldn’t be more BBC if it was called David Attenborough Makes a Cup of Tea. Alongside The Daily, I subscribe to Global News, and, honestly, you don’t need much more.

Shaun Keaveny, Radio 6 Music
The anti-breakfast show DJ. Some people find Keaveny too slow, grumpy and silly to get them going in the mornings, but once you tune into his particular way of looking at the world, Keaveny is hard to resist. Longstanding jokes and regular visitors (Brian Cox) bump up against excellent music choices and daft middle-aged wonderings. If shouty politicians and irritating celebrities are too much for you to handle before 10am (or ever), if your musical taste goes from Bowie to Goat, then Keaveny is your man.

5 Live Breakfast, Radio 5Live
Nicky Campbell isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but his Alan Partridge-isms are superficial: he’s certainly more right-on than Humphrys. Rachel Burden very much holds her own and 5 Live Breakfast has an informed-but-informal feel that helps it move more nimbly between hard and so-called soft news than Today has ever managed. It understands culture and life outside Westminster and, of course, it’s excellent on sport. The show’s flexibility means you don’t get Today’s clockwork feel (8.10am? Puffed up politician time) but that’s no bad thing.

Nick Ferrari, LBC
You may well not like his politics, but Ferrari is an exemplary broadcaster, putting over the opposing point of view to anyone he speaks to – from cabinet minister to taxi driver – with clarity and quite some charm. Supported by just one producer (as opposed to the BBC’s phalanx), he rattles through adverts, shuts down bigots and gets great quotes from politicians and journalists. He has a good sense of what is really bothering his audience. James O’Brien is on straight afterwards, for a different perspective.

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