Pick of the Week, Radio 4
Pick of the Week, and its RTÉ equivalent Playback, are my go to when I’m looking for a chocolate box selection of the best of what’s out there.
It’s a way of picking up on radio gems, of which there are so many.
Pick of the Week was presented this week by writer Emma Freud, broadcasting from her sitting room. At least she didn’t have to get into a wardrobe – that was a pandemic radio broadcast thing.
This was a warm, funny, friendly chat – she talked about her radio friends, about whom she has “incredibly strong feelings” – they get into the shower with her.
High on her choices was a very emotional moment from Desert Island Discs.
Love is on Emma’s agenda at the moment – she has finally got married after 32 years of being a girlfriend, she confided. To celebrate, her four children all got t-shirts saying: “B*****d no more!”.
That brings us to actor and local Jamie Dornan and his Desert Island Discs. There were a few poignant moments in the programme – he spoke with sincerity and from the heart.
Dornan is, said Emma, “the most delicate of hearts, the most open of souls… how incredibly proud his mum would have been”.
The clip played was Jamie Dornan’s description of how his mother Lorna was diagnosed with inoperable cancer when he was 14.
“I’m really grateful for those words”
— BBC Radio 4 (@BBCRadio4) January 29, 2024
Our latest castaway to the desert island is Jamie Dornan. In this deeply emotional interview, Jamie speaks to @laurenlaverne about how he dealt with his mother’s death at such a young age.
Desert Island Discs | Listen on BBC Sounds… pic.twitter.com/gv2PFp8QwK
He had just finished playing rugby at Pirrie Park and got into the car.
“Dad told me there and then, before turning the engine on, that she wasn’t going to survive.
Pick of the Week, and its RTÉ equivalent Playback, are my go to when I’m looking for a chocolate box selection of the best of what’s out there
“I’m thankful it was told to me straight like that.”
The next summer, his friends died in a car crash. Those were difficult years.
But he had the support of “amazing” family and he remembers his father telling the children not to let the death of their mother define them.
Freud also touched on Andrew Leland’s stunning memoir The Country of the Blind.
Leland talked about the tough regime at the training school for the blind that he attended.
He had to spend eight hours a day wearing a blindfold.
It was, he said, “Navy Seal blindness training”. Someone drives you round the city in circles then drops you off alone and you don’t know where. Then, without using the phone and asking only one person one question, you have to find your way back to the training centre.
It was jaw-dropping.