WE all have our blind spots. (In the circumstances maybe deaf spot is more appropriate). Drama on the radio is one of mine, I’m afraid. Still, Lucy Loves Desi: a Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom (Radio 4, Monday to Friday) was brief enough and brisk enough (far briefer and brisker than that title) to keep me engaged.
Written by Gregg Oppenheimer, it told the story of the creation of the American sitcom I Love Lucy which starred Lucille Ball and her Cuban-American husband Desi Arnaz (and was created by Gregg’s dad). With a high-powered cast that included Anne Heche as Lucille, Wilmer Valderrama as Desi and Jared Harris as Jess (with Alfred Molina and Stacey Keach in the mix too), this romped along, with Heche and everyone clearly enjoying themselves.
The racism the couple faced was dealt with humorously but never downplayed. “What do you mean no one would believe Desi is my husband?” Heche as Lucille said at one point. “He is my husband. Of course audiences will accept us together. Why wouldn’t they?”
To boost his familiarity to the audience Desi is even given his own TV quiz show bumping some other “poor schmuck” in the process. “Who is the poor schmuck the station boss asks? “Carson. Johnny Carson.”
Also on Radio 4, last Sunday, The Reunion returned, with Kirsty Wark replacing Sue MacGregor. What hasn’t change is the tendency to tidy up the emotional fallout of history and turn events like this week’s subject, Black Wednesday, into the stuff of amusing anecdote.
Still, sometimes the anecdotes are worth it. Mark Clarke was the foreign exchange dealer for the Bank of America, one of the “shirt-sleeved speculators” (according to Gordon Brown). On the day in question he was caught on camera admitting with a smile that his bank had made £10m (in reality, he told Wark, more like “£20m”). It made him for a short time one of the most hated men in the UK, according to a Daily Mail phone-in.
“All of my mates in the city had speed dial and they were speed-dialling the Daily Mail number. I was voted number six, in between Margaret Thatcher and Francois Mitterrand.”
Listen Out For: Bruce Springsteen: From My Home to Yours, Radio 2, Friday, midnight
The Boss continues his run as DJ. Anything Bob Dylan can do ...
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