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Chris Evans presents a fully interactive show for all the family, featuring music, special guests and listeners on the phone.

2 hours, 59 minutes

Last on

Mon 17 Aug 2015 06:30
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 2

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Music Played

  • David Bowie

    Let's Dance

    • David Bowie - Best Of Bowie.
    • EMI.

  • Rod Stewart

    Love Is

    • Another Country.
    • Capitol Records.

  • Tony Christie

    Avenues and Alleyways

    • Tony Christie - Definitive Collection.
    • Universal.

  • Spin Doctors

    Two Princes

    • Driving Rock (Various Artists).
    • Global Records & Tapes.

  • XTC

    Senses Working Overtime

    • Power Pop Anthems (Various Artists).
    • Virgin.
    • 3.

  • The Osmonds

    Crazy Horses

    • The Very Best Of The Osmonds.
    • Polydor.

  • Lemar

    The Letter

    • (CD Single).
    • BMG.
    • 001.

  • Soul II Soul

    Back to Life (However Do You Want Me) (feat. Caron Wheeler)

    • NOW 100 Hits 80s No.1s (Various Artists).
    • NOW.

  • The S.O.S. Band

    Just Be Good To Me

    • The History Of Dance Vol. 2 (Various Artists).
    • Connoisseur Collection.

  • Beats International

    Dub Be Good To Me

    • Dancing On Sunshine - 22 Reggae Hits.
    • Polygram Tv.

  • Lorde

    Royals

    • Pure Heroine.
    • Republic.

  • The Lovin’ Spoonful

    Summer In The City

    • The Lovin' Spoonful Collection.
    • Castle Communications.

  • David Gilmour

    Rattle That Lock

    • Rattle That Lock.
    • Columbia.
    • 1.

  • Pilot

    Magic

    • 25 Years Of Rock'n'Roll Vol.2 (1974).
    • Connoisseur Collection.

  • The Waterboys

    The Whole of the Moon

    • Now 1991 - The Millennium Series.
    • Now.

  • Donovan

    Sunshine Superman

    • The Greatest Hits Of 1966.
    • Premier.

  • Ward Thomas

    Guest List

    • (CD Single).
    • WTW Music.
    • 001.

  • Culture Club

    Karma Chameleon

    • Fantastic 80's Disc 1 (Various Artis.
    • Columbia.

  • The Clash

    Train In Vain

    • The Essential Clash.
    • Sony Music Entertainment.

  • The Drifters

    Under The Boardwalk

    • We Gotta Sing: The Soul Years 1962-1971.
    • Strawberry.

  • Creedence Clearwater Revival

    Bad Moon Rising

    • Green River.
    • Fantasy.
    • 1.

  • The Proclaimers

    I'm on My Way

    • The Best Of The Proclaimers.
    • Chrysalis.

  • Shaun Escoffery

    Nature's Call

    • Nature's Call.
    • Dome Records.
    • 001.

  • Rachel Platten

    Fight Song

    • (CD Single).
    • Columbia.

  • Lenny Kravitz

    California

    • Lenny Kravitz - Baptism.
    • Parlophone.

  • Joe Jackson

    Steppin' Out

  • Don Henley

    The Boys Of Summer

    • The Very Best Of.
    • MCA.

  • Thea Gilmore

    Live Out Loud

    • (CD Single).
    • Fullfill.
    • 001.

  • Simon & Garfunkel

    Â鶹ԼÅÄward Bound

    • The Definitive Simon & Garfunkel.
    • Columbia.

  • Semisonic

    Chemistry

    • (CD Single).
    • MCA.

Pause For Thought

Pause For Thought

Art Historian, Dr Jim Harris

In the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge there’s a seventeenth-century Dutch painting of some people walking on a beach.

Last year, the painting went to be cleaned and, as she started to remove the old varnish, the conservator, Shan Kuang, noticed something unusual about the surface.  It turned out that not only were there people on the beach, but also a whale.  Really.  An enormous whale that someone in the eighteenth century had painted over.  Shan was the first person in over 200 years to look closely enough to see it.

When I’m teaching in my home Museum, the Ashmolean, I encourage people to look carefully at objects and ask questions. What is it made of?  How is it put together? Has it been changed or damaged?  Once the physical facts are established it’s easier to analyse: What is it for? What does it mean?

The trouble is, at Oxford, most of my students are pretty smart and sometimes they like to get straight down to saying what they think they know, without really looking at all. 

And although I’m the one teaching them, I often find that I’m the same, with people, with the news, with the world. I mutter at the TV and the paper. I bark at disingenuous politicians, without stopping to look properly or ask sensible questions.

Now I like to think my prejudices are of an acceptable sort: I’m a liberal-minded academic who doesn’t want to hurt or offend.  But I’m as knee-jerk and thoughtless as anyone.  I listen to the arguments, but I shut out the bits I disagree with.  I get the picture.  But I don’t see the whale. 

This isn’t a new problem.  In the Bible, the prophet Isaiah complained about the Israelites, ‘You have seen many things, but you pay no attention’. When Jesus was trying to explain about himself to his friend Philip, he said, ‘at least believe on the evidence’.

Jumping to conclusions about things means skipping over vital evidence, sometimes just below the surface that might help us understand the world and each other better. It allows me to pander to my prejudices.  And I reckon it means we sometimes miss the point completely.  Or the truth.  Or even the whale.

Broadcast

  • Mon 17 Aug 2015 06:30
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 2

Farewell Chris Evans: The best bits from his last shows at Radio 2

After eight years of hosting the Breakfast Show, Chris Evans leaves Radio 2.

500 Words

Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 2's story-writing competition for kids.