The First Night of the Proms, and more: Radio and podcasts of the week
The First Night of the Proms, and more: Radio and podcasts of the week
Chris BennionSun, July 12, 2026 at 8:26 AM UTC
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Georgia Mann and Petroc Trelawny host coverage of the First Night of the Proms - BBCSaturday 11 July
Key Changes: Radio 3’s Essential History of Classical MusicRadio 3, 1pmToday, Gillian Moore’s excellent series on the evolution of classical music tells a history of violins – now the cornerstone of the orchestra, but once considered a lowly, dance instrument. Starting with the year 1727, Moore is joined by historian Suzannah Lipscomb to unpick why Antonio Stradivari’s violins have not yet been improved upon (amazingly, it could be related to the Little Ice Age) and how the work of the instrument’s most revered exponent, Antonio Vivaldi, was nearly forgotten forevermore.
Writer Peter Singer - Getty
Archive on 4: 50 Years of Peter Singer’s Animal LiberationRadio 4, 8pmFood for thought from the peerless documentary strand as philosopher Jonathan Egid chews over Peter Singer’s seminal 1975 work Animal Liberation. Egid’s thesis – that the book was instrumental in bringing about what Singer called “a Copernican evolution in ethics” surrounding the treatment of animals in the UK – is well supported. Listen out for the pharmaceutical spokesperson defending the use of testing chemicals on animals or Singer himself, who turned 80 last week, being likened to “a crank” for going vegetarian. An absorbing glimpse into a national sea-change of philosophy.
Sunday 12 July
Around the World in 80 WaysRadio 4, 4.30pmRadio 4’s latest quiz pilot is, hurrah, rather good. Adventurer Simon Reeve makes for an apposite, and winningly cheeky, host as he tests two teams of keen travellers on their geographical knowledge. Set as an audio board game – the travellers must answer questions to get from one location to another, like an armchair Race Across the World – the quiz serves the dual purpose of being pleasingly tricky and prompting the itchiest of feet. It even gets a little heated: “There’s some smug anecdoting going on there,” says one team of the other, darkly.
English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams had a fascination with the poetry of Walt Whitman - Hulton Archive
Sunday Feature: Whitman and Vaughan WilliamsRadio 3, 7pmLaura Barton explores the fascinating artistic connection that Ralph Vaughan Williams felt towards Walt Whitman. Just what did the quintessentially English composer find in the quintessentially American poet’s work? And what did the two have in common? One thing, as Barton finds, was that both men were “rewriting” the artistic language of their country. Best of all, Barton travels to Bolton library to learn about an unexpected connection between Whitman and the working men of the Lancastrian industrial town.
Monday 13 July
Johnny Marr, Morrissey, Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke of The Smiths in 1985 - Michael Ochs Archives
The Rise and Fall of The SmithsBBC SoundsThe latest of the BBC’s reliably good Rise and Fall of… podcasts centres on The Smiths, a band whose legacy remains undiminished, despite the latter day antipathy towards lead singer Morrissey and his controversial and trenchant political opinions. Elizabeth Alker and Steve Lamacq (who else?) tell the story of the Manchester band’s creation, rise to enormous success and bitter fallout, with a little help from those who were there, including band members Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce, Factory Records co-founder Tony Wilson, their manager Joe Moss, and even the Mozfather himself.
Church Going, with Giles FraserRadio 4, 11amThis three-part series, from “celebrity vicar” Giles Fraser, is as melancholy as you might expect from a programme inspired by a Philip Larkin poem. Fraser, despite his own congregation growing, is concerned about the decline of active Christian worship in the UK, so sets off across the nation to find a little faith. He visits a 135-year-old church in Northumberland that is shutting its doors (its monthly worshippers having dwindled to four), finds another church brewing beer to make ends meet, and discovers there could be more than 5,000 churches lying empty in England alone. Fraser, understandably, is a little downbeat. “It feels like my life’s work is being flushed away,” he says.
Tuesday 14 July
Lucy Worsley puts the media in the dock - Geoff Pugh
Lady on Trial with Lucy WorsleyRadio 4, 3pmThe latest episode of the historian’s series on women at the heart of extraordinary legal battles turns the tables a little – as well as investigating four notorious cases, Worsley puts the media itself in the dock. Contrasting historical cases – from the wronged Caroline Norton to the suffragist Annie Kenney – with modern-day ones, Worsley finds a public landscape happy to tear women down even when the court acquits them. Can women, even today, ever have a fair trial if their case goes viral? Worsley’s series of subtle “hmms” and sighs belie a genuine, understandable fury.
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Where’s Michael Clark?Radio 4, 4pmNick Grimshaw interviews the one-time “enfant terrible” of British dance, Michael Clark, the classically trained ballet dancer with the soul of a snarling punk rocker. The softly spoken Aberdonian discusses his tricky childhood, getting chucked out of ballet school for sniffing glue, why he has no time for dance critics, and the moment he realised the drink and drugs had gotten out of hand. “When Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas are telling you to go into a rehab, there’s probably a problem,” he says. Sounds heavy, but it’s a warm and witty 30 minutes.
Wednesday 15 July
Dennis Lillee bowling for Australia during the 3rd Test match between England and Australia in 1981 - Popperfoto
The 1981 AshesRadio 4 Extra, 10amFor fans of English cricket still smarting from the New Zealand series and the Ben Stokes brouhaha, this splendid repeat from 2011 is a wonderful salve. Mike Brearley digs through the archives – and his own memory – to tell the tale of the 1981 Ashes series. 1-0 down after two Tests, England were in tatters. Botham, useless with bat and ball, resigned as captain. In stepped the retired Brearley, 39 years old and considered not good enough to bat for England. He, however, was the Botham whisperer. A lovely listen for England fans (less so Australia).
The Art of Being a Zombie Ant FungusRadio 4, 3.30pmThe temptation is to ask what sort of mushrooms were in the room when cultural entomologist Bridget Nicholls and producer Eliane Glaser conceived this madcap fungi documentary. Finding the intersection between science and art, Nicholls explores the grisly subject of cordyceps, the “zombie fungi” that hollow out and control their hosts like a puppet (usually ants, phew). This leads to playful discussions of free will, artificial intelligence, and what a mushroom would sound like if it could sing (definitely not opera, by the way).
Thursday 16 July
New Storytellers 2026Radio 4, 1.45pmRadio 4’s admirable strand, championing emerging audio producers, is on all week. Today in Minor Swing, University of Sunderland student Willem Fisk-Nicholson explores how he had to play second fiddle as a child to his mother’s obsession with the jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli. A lovely, lively piece. All five are worth catching up on: start with Monday’s, Unzipping a Community, in which Luned Elfyn tells the tale that lurks beneath the fun and games of Zip World in the Penrhyn Quarry in Bethesda, north Wales.
Peter Lord of Aardman Animations - PA
This Natural LifeRadio 4, 3pmA welcome dose of slow radio as Martha Kearney ambles through Whitcliff Deer Park on the Berkeley Estate in Gloucestershire in the company of Aardman Animations co-founder Peter Lord. So, does the bucolic landscape and various fauna help to inspire the critters we see in Shaun the Sheep, Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit? “Erm,” says Lord, politely, “we’re not very faithful to the real world.” Kearney does, however, see in Whitcliff the Aardman veneration of the British countryside. A lovely stroll.
Friday 17 July
Conductor Dalia Stasevska will lead the BBC Symphony & Orchestra on the First Night of the Proms - Chris Christodoulou
Proms 2026Radio 3, from 6.30amHappy Proms day to all those who celebrate. Radio is counting down to the first night this evening, with celebratory programming coming live from the Royal Albert Hall from 6.30am, featuring live performances from some of the 2026 Proms artists. At 7pm, the big event itself, the First Night of the Proms. Conductor Dalia Stasevska leads piano virtuosos Yunchan Lim and the BBC Symphony & Orchestra in an evening of Copland, Gershwin and Ravel. Petroc Trelawny and Georgia Mann are your hosts.
Heart and Soul: Harry Haft’s Unspeakable FightWorld Service, 1.30pmWarning: this exemplary edition of Heart and Soul is a difficult listen, containing as it does descriptions of some of the horrors perpetrated during the Holocaust. It focuses on Harry Haft, a Polish heavyweight boxer who died in 2007 and once fought Rocky Marciano. As told by Haft’s son, Alan, it is an overwhelmingly harrowing story, as Haft, at the age of 17, was forced to fight other Jewish concentration camp prisoners to the death, something he did upwards of 70 times. A vital document of unspeakable inhumanity.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
