Lucky Boy (Tortoise Media)
Moorgate (Radio 4/BBC Sounds)
Thirty Eulogies (Radio 4/BBC Sounds)
Harford: An Oral History (Dan Hooper)
Lauren Laverne (Radio 6 Music/BBC Sounds)
“In that summer, it was me and her against the world. We were powerful, right?” On Tortoise Media’s new four-part podcast, Lucky Boy, Gareth (not his real name) is remembering his first love. He was 14 then, bright but a “misfit”, having a secret relationship. She was 27 and a teacher. Lucky Boy is how Gareth thought of himself at the time; nearly 40 years later, he thinks the opposite.
I approached this podcast, the latest season of Tortoise Investigates, with unease. Not because of the company’s previous form: last autumn, Elon’s Spies was a timely dig into Captain Techbro’s use of private investigators and surveillance, and the one before that, Master, delved into sexual allegations against the writer Neil Gaiman, making global headlines.
I worried that the subject matter – an exploration of who is allowed to be a perpetrator and a victim in our society – was tricksy. Details risked being conveyed in tantalising, titillating ways, however serious the programme’s intent or tone. But in the hands of ex-BBC reporter Chloe Hadjimatheou, who went to a school near Gareth’s in north London, the telling of this story, and her coverage of its ramifications, was handled with exceptional due diligence, sensitivity and power.
Many moments lingered. Some were from the past, such as an incident with a pornographic magazine in a cafe full of schoolchildren, or the accounts of Gareth’s mother’s battles with his school (the teacher, she says, her voice breaking, “ruined his life” – the teacher still denies all wrongdoing). Most striking, though, are moments from the present day: the testimony of an old pupil who says that it was a “more innocent time” while acknowledging the teacher and pupil’s relationship, and Hadjimatheou’s chat with a group of current 14-year-old boys.
The mother in me cringed when they were asked what they got up to at parties (it’s slightly inappropriate), but Hadjimatheou stayed on just the right side of prurience, showing how young 14-year-olds really are (many didn’t shave yet; one confessed that he still played with his Lego). The 1980s scene-setting, including a subtle, gothy-edged theme by Tom Kinsella, also played a crucial role, reminding me of situations I’ve discussed with other friends about how easily abuse in schools was brushed over back then. We knew, even then, what was wrong. Two excellent episodes are out now; all four if you subscribe.
Period scene-setting was also a priority for two-part Radio 4 drama, Moorgate, about the notorious 1975 tube train crash (it sped into a wall, in morning rush hour, killing 43 people). Written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, known for prime-time TV big-hitters The New Statesman and Birds of a Feather, it is the culmination of a lifetime personal project for Marks. He was a young journalist at the scene, unaware until later that his father was dead inside the train (he wrote an astonishing piece about this recently for the Guardian).
Based on his extensive research into the horror, Moorgate has a distinctly old-fashioned feeling. The exposition is as heavy as its subject, and much of the dialogue is dated (I lost count of the slightly lairy men), although much of it has a link to the time, like the comment by a firefighter to a trapped woman, saying he’d take her dancing after getting her out.
Hints of lives before and after the accident suggested fresher storytelling directions – I was intrigued by the interior world of young WPC Margaret Liles, but this didn’t get enough time. Moorgate felt more like an exorcism, or a piece of time travel, understandable from someone with a life transformed by such a terrible disaster, rather than an attempt by Marks (and Gran) to create something new.
I’ll finish with three gorgeous highlights from my listening week. Thirty Eulogies was a properly affecting half-hour of radio, about haemophiliac Suresh Vaghela, who contracted HIV at 21 through infected blood. Listen to it without reading the blurb, as I did, and it takes unexpected turns, some desperately sad, others very joyful. I loved Vaghela’s wife getting taken out for a night in Manchester’s Canal Street by a group of gay men. “They’re the only people [with whom] I’ve ever been myself,” she says.
Also excellent – if niche – is Harford: An Oral History, a “surreal comedy podcast uncovering the strange and forgotten history of Haverfordwest” by radio comedy writer Dan Hooper. Delivered in his west Walian lilt, these punchy 10- to 14-minuters crackle with bible-black, absurd, twisted humour. Enjoy the tale beginning with teenagers who hang out in the local crematorium as if it’s a nightclub (“it helped that the organist was an absolute legend”) and another about a civic planner who approves a Happy Shopper designed to rival the Acropolis. The first two episodes made me laugh out loud many times; there are more to come.
And finally, Lauren Laverne’s back on 6 Music, now at mid-morning, after a break because of a cancer diagnosis. Kicking off with Sly and the Family Stone and Ezra Collective, her first link was typically breezy and bright – she truly is the perfect, groovy big sister – before adding it was wonderful to be “back in the place that feels most like home to me”. Our homes are very happy to have her.
