Jim Gilchrist: Radio listener

Published on Saturday 14 November 2009 13:45

As Neil Oliver gives misconceptions about Battle of Culloden a whiff of revisionist grapeshot on his History of Scotland on television, singer Eddi Reader takes the Jacobite trail on Radio Scotland. IN THE FOOTSTEPS shovels the shortbread off Flora MacDonald's reputation to reveal the bold woman who helped save Bonnie Prince Charlie – not that she ever heard from him again.

Reader discovers how, despite her celebrity status, life didn't go well for MacDonald, post BPC. The singer also draws on personal experience to consider the price of sudden fame, and visits MacDonald's cottage on the Isle of Skye.

A more contemporary take comes from SCOTTISH SHORTS, three stories showcasing new Scottish writing produced by Radio Scotland's drama department for Radio 4. They start on Tuesday with One of Us by Julia Butler, about a young asylum-seeker transcending racial prejudice on the football field, and continue with Tat Usher's Fifty-one, about teenage angst and lane swimming, and Janet Walkinshaw's 1950s love story Miss Bell and Miss Heaton.

Meanwhile, roving accordionist and broadcaster Phil Cunningham combines stories and music in MY LIFE IN FIVE SONGS, in which he speaks to five musicians about the music which has informed their lives, starting with jazz guitar virtuoso Martin Taylor.

And as CHILDREN IN NEED swings into view once again, Pudsey the annoyingly mawkish bandaged bear is everywhere – if undeniably for a good cause. So the Beeb's outgoing affable uncle, Sir Terry Wogan, presents his last Children in Need charity auction as host of Radio 2's BREAKFAST SHOW on Monday, disbursing such glittering – for that, read "bizarrely assorted" – prizes as the chance to fly alongside the last RAF Vulcan bomber (unashamed Cold War nostalgia), lunch with three "national treasures", Maureen Lipman, Michael Palin and Sir Terry himself, and a makeover from lifestyle TV's favourite fashion fixer, Gok Wan. Haud me back.

IN THE FOOTSTEPS

Thursday, Radio Scotland, 11:30am

SCOTTISH SHORTS

Tues-Thurs, Radio Four, 3:30pm

MY LIFE IN FIVE SONGS

Tuesday, Radio Scotland, 11:30am

BBC CHILDREN IN NEED 2009

Monday, Radio 2, 7:30am

This article was first published in The Scotsman Magazine on 14/11/09