Desert Island Discs - BBC Radio 4
In Our Time: Monet in England - BBC Radio 4
Comedian Rob Delaney is well-known for his sharp wit and powers of observation. What’s perhaps less well known is that he’s also an advocate for the NHS and bereaved families.
He’s positive but “the world is still just a horrible toilet”, he says, adding that comedy is not incompatible with incredibly difficult times.
His open heart is what makes his Desert Island Discs so compelling.
When his son Henry died aged two-and-a-half from a brain tumour, it left him with a heart “torn into pieces and dissolved in salt”.
Memories of Henry keep him and his wife in London – he likes to put his hand on the slides that Henry slid down.
When his time to die comes, he wants more than anything crawl into the room where his son died and pass away there, he said.
Then there are his musical choices. His first is the Chieftains – when he first heard it, he said, “It nailed me to the floor.”
There’s Sinéad O’Connor too – “one of the best transmuters of pain into beauty.”
It’s a heartbreaking listen at times – but Delaney is endearing company.
French artist Claude Monet – famed for his painting Impression, Sunrise - was the focus of In Our Time.
Melvyn Bragg and guests talked about his London paintings.
Later in his life, Monet stayed in the Savoy Hotel – he brought his wife, Alice, who was distraught by the death of her daughter – and was captivated by the fog. Or was it smog?
From his Savoy balcony, he began a series of almost a hundred paintings that captured the essence of London at the time, with fog and smoke almost obscuring the bridges, boats and Houses of Parliament.
The pollution was a true health hazard – herds of cattle at Smithfield market were asphyxiated – and the thick “yellow fog” features in the writings of TS Eliot and Dickens.
Still, sun breaking through the sooty droplets offered an ever-changing light and Monet was to paint the Thames more than he did his water lilies or haystacks or Rouen Cathedral.
He could spend four years catching a single moment of light on water. This was a chance to learn more about the great impressionist in the company of people who are passionate about him.
