WHEN a bereaved parishioner asks to mark their beloved’s passing with “Always look on the bright side of life”, what do you say? Claudia Hammond and her panel of experts from Health Check (World Service, Wednesday of last week) might just have the answer.
The Monty Python ditty is a classic example of “toxic positivity”, and must therefore be avoided for the mental well-being of mourners. It is the latest thing in psychiatric circles. During Covid, we were constantly telling one another how great we were doing, when, in reality, we were dying inside; and we have not got out of the habit. “It’s OK not to be OK,” is the therapeutic mantra de nos jours.
None of this could possibly be a revelation to anyone other than a housemaster who had not set foot out of his impossibly remote preparatory school for the past half-century; tell someone to “turn that frown upside down” and you are likely to get your own face rearranged. But no excuse is required for the coining of a new psychological term, and Hammond’s guests spoke earnestly about the need to get things off your chest. So, next time somebody asks you how you are, give it to them with both barrels.
That is surely what Alexei Sayle would do; the pioneer of unflinching alternative comedy who usurped the stand-up scene in the 1980s — except that, nowadays, I’m not so sure. Alexei Sayle’s Strangers on a Train (Radio 4, Saturdays) is so mild-mannered, one wonders whether the old Trot is taking us for some elaborate ride. The show sits firmly in the venerable Radio 4 genre of random encounters, such as Where Are You Going? (presenter meets someone in the street and strikes up a conversation) or Don’t Log Off (presenter meets someone on the internet and strikes up a conversation). In this version, our beloved leftie meets some people on a train and . . . you’ve guessed it.
If the interactions were in any way memorable, this show might at least be regarded as charming. But the giveaway came when Comrade Alexei, having been told some wholly forgettable fact about Skegness or Nottingham or somewhere, responded with “If I did my research at all, I would know that.” The only mitigation here is that, knowing the BBC, we can guess that the old rope for which he has been commissioned is probably not earning him much money.
At some point soon, in the old adage that states that news is the first draft of history, “news” will have to be replaced by “podcasts”. So diligent and immediate have the team responsible for Americast (BBC Sounds) been that it has long superseded in relevance — and contextual detail — the summaries of US politics provided on scheduled radio news. The assassination attempt was, of course, front and centre (News, 19 July), but so also was the choice of J. D. Vance for running mate. It was a surprise not just because Vance had formerly likened his new boss to Hitler, but because Trump has a distaste for facial hair.