Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Liz Lochhead, Gareth Malone, Sebastian Barry and Tuesday Review

Liz Lochhead reads new poetry inspired by lock down, Gareth Malone discusses The Great British 麻豆约拍 Chorus and Sebastian Barry chats about his new book A Thousand Moons.

Niall Murphy赂 architect and chair of the Glagow City Heritage Trust, has been showing off some local urban #MomentsofBeauty on his Twitter feed, and author Louise Welsh has been exploring the hidden lanes of the city 鈥 they share their ideas for things to look out for on urban lock down walks.

Damien Love talks about his new children鈥檚 book Monstrous Devices, about killer robots, and inspired by the stories he loved as a child in Wishaw.

Liz Lochhead was on the show three weeks鈥 ago and she mentioned a poem she had started writing inspired by the lock down. She鈥檚 now finished it, and will read The Spaces in Between on air for Janice.

Sebastian Barry discusses his new novel A Thousand Moons.

Gareth Malone talks about his choir of thousands The Great British 麻豆约拍 Chorus, which would-be singers around the country can join thanks to online rehearsals and digital technology.

And in Tuesday Review our critics Bronwen Livingstone, Andrew Meehan and Amy Taylor give their verdict on Sally Rooney鈥檚 own adaptation for the 麻豆约拍 of her bestselling novel Normal People, Frankenstein from National Theatre at 麻豆约拍 and Apple TV鈥檚 first UK commission, Trying which is a comedy starring Imelda Staunton, Rafe Spall and Esther Smith, about a couple trying to start a family.

2 hours, 28 minutes

Music Played

  • Nancy Sinatra

    These Boots Are Made for Walkin'

    • The Greatest Hits Of Nancy Sinatra.
    • Boulevard.
  • The Proclaimers

    King of the Road

    • The Best Of.
    • CHRYSALIS.
    • 7.
  • Fleetwood Mac

    Everywhere

    • The Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac.
    • Warner Strategic Marketi.
    • 13.
  • Donna Summer

    Hot Stuff

    • The All Time Greatest Movie Songs.
    • Columbia/Sony Tv.
  • Sheena Easton

    Morning Train (Nine to Five)

    • Sheena Easton.
    • EMI鈥怌apitol Music Special Markets.
    • 001.
  • The La鈥檚

    There She Goes

    • Crash! Indie Anthems 1982 - 2004.
    • BMG / Telstar.
    • 20.
  • Sister Sledge

    We Are Family

    • Disco Fever (Various Artists).
    • Global Television.
  • George Ezra

    Shotgun

    • Staying at Tamara鈥檚.
    • Columbia.
    • 004.
  • Strawberry Switchblade

    Since Yesterday

    • Strawberry Switchblade.
    • Korova.
    • 1.
  • Maroon 5

    Moves Like Jagger (feat. Christina Aguilera)

    • (CD Single).
    • A&M.
    • 1.
  • Martha and the Muffins

    Echo Beach

    • The Oldies - Steve Wright In The Afternoon.
    • Universal.
    • 5.
  • The Fratellis

    Chelsea Dagger

    • Now 65 (Various Artists).
    • Now.
  • Dead or Alive

    You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)

    • Wave Party (Various Artists).
    • Columbia.
    • 4.
  • Patsy Cline

    Walkin' After Midnight

    • Patsy Cline - Walking After Midnight.
    • Classic Country.

The Spaces Between - a lockdown poem by Liz Lochhead

The Spaces Between

听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 (for Leslie McGuire)

The boy is ten and today it is his birthday.

Behind him on the lawn

his mother and his little sister

unfurl a rainbow crayoned big and bright

on a roll of old wallpaper.

His father, big-eyed, mock-solemn, pantomimes ceremony

as he lights the ten candles on the cake.

Inside her living-room

his grandmother puts her open palm to the window.

Out in the garden, her grandson

reaches up, mirrors her, stretching fingers

and they smile and smile as if they touched

warm flesh not cold glass.

More than forty thousand years ago

men or women splayed their fingers thus

and put their hands to bare rock, they

chewed ochre, red-ochre, gritted charcoal and blew,

blew with projectile effort that really took it out of them,

their living breath. Raw gouts of pigment

spattered the living stencil

that was each鈥檚 own living hand

and made their mark.

The space of absence

was the clean, stark picture of their presence

and it pleased them.

We do not know why they did it

and maybe they did not either but

they knew they must.

It was the cold cave wall

and they knew they were up against it.

The birthday boy is juggling.

He has been spending time in the lockdown learning

but though he still can鈥檛 keep it up for long

his grandmother dumb-shows most extravagant applause.

She toasts them all in tea

from her Best Granny in the World mug, winking

and licking her lips ecstatically as they cut the cake,

miming hunger, miming prayer

for her hunger to be sated.

The slim girl dances and her grandmother claps

and claps again, blinking tears.

Another matched high-five at her window.

Neither the blown candles or the blown kisses

will leave any permanent mark

听鈥 unless love does? --

on them on this the only afternoon

they will be all alive together on just this day the boy is ten. 听听听

听听听听听听听听听 听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Liz Lochhead,

听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Glasgow, Scotland. April 2020

Broadcast

  • Tue 28 Apr 2020 13:30