Saturday, December 18
Soul Music, Radio 4, 10.30am
Kick off your Christmas celebrations with the latest episode of Soul Music which this week takes Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols as its jumping-off point for memory and story.
Sunday, December 19
Slow Radio: Venice between the Bells, Radio 3, midnight
There are 107 bell towers in Venice, their chimes ringing out throughout the day across La Serenissima. Producer Martin Williams offers us a soundscape that takes us from midday to midnight and will no doubt leave us desperate to jump on a vaporetto as soon as Covidly possible.
Monday, December 20
Book of the Week, Radio 4, 9.45am
Actor, director and eager cook Stanley Tucci reads from his memoir Taste, a book full of food and love. It continues every day until Friday.
Tuesday, December 21
Arlo Parks, 6 Music, 10.30am
It’s not been a bad 2021 for Arlo Parks. She started the year talking to The Herald Magazine and ends it picking her favourite music for 6 Music. Oh, and in between she released her debut album and won a Mercury Music Prize. She’s one of 6 Music’s guest presenters this week. Robert Plant, Common and Jarvis Cocker follow her in the same slot.
Wednesday, December 22
Conversations from a Long Marriage at Christmas – Again, Radio 4, 6.30pm
Jan Etherington’s over-60s comedy starring Roger Allam and Joanna Lumley offers a spot of sexagenarian sex and solace. That rare thing on Radio 4, a genuinely funny (albeit bittersweet) comedy.
Christmas Eve
Count Arthur Strong’s Radio Show! Radio 4, 1.30pm
Steve Delaney’s annual comedy treat, recorded in front of a live audience, is entitled Away in a Mangle! In a better world we’d be sitting down to Count Arthur’s TV Christmas show rather than the misery of Mrs Brown’s Boys.
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, Radio 4, 3pm
Well, it’s tradition, isn’t it? Coming live from the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, this is the perfect accompaniment to basting the nut roast.
Christmas Day
Moominland Midwinter, Radio 4, 11am
Samantha Bond narrates Robin Brooks’s adaptation of Tove Jansson’s wintry classic, which should be both cosy listening and a shivery pleasure in equal measures.
Four Peaks Sound Walk, Radio 3, 4pm
By four in the afternoon on Christmas Day you could probably do with something to clear your head. This jaunt outdoors with broadcaster and writer Horatio Clare could be just the thing. In this, the first of four programmes, he hikes up Ben Nevis. That should clear any cobwebs.
Human League: Don’t You Want Me at 40, Radio 2, 7pm
Rather leading question that, surely. And what if you’re over 40? Anyway, the point is Dare, the must-have album of 1981, is now four decades old, a fact that makes me (and possibly you) feel older than Methuselah. Anyway, here is Phil talking (and Joanne and Susan) about their salad days. “Wooh! Gary Davies” presents
Boxing Day
Jeremy Irons Reads TS Eliot, Radio 4, 9pm
Does what it says on the tin, although as well as Mr Irons reciting Eliot's poetry, there are contributions from Jeanette Winterson and academic Anthony Julius.
Pet Shop Boys, Takeover, Radio 2, 9pm
The greatest eighties synthpop duo (sorry Marc and Dave, Andy and Vince) commandeer the airwaves to play disco, northern soul and, it says here, the odd show tune. We expect some bone-dry badinage in between the records.
Ricky Ross Meets Kim Wilde, Radio Scotland, 10pm
And the eighties theme continues. Not that I’m jealous or anything, but Ricky Ross gets to spend time with Britain’s very own kitchen-sink Bardot. Kids in America will get an airing, one imagines.
Monday, December 27
My Classical DNA, Classic FM, 9pm
Emeli Sande is the first guest in Classic FM’s new series revealing her classical favourites.
Tuesday, December 28
Laura Mvula’s Music Room, Radio 3, 10pm
Herald Magazine cover star Laura Mvula may be best known these days for her disco leanings, but she was raised in the world of the classics, hence this Radio 3 slot. Here, she reveals some of the music that helped get her through 2021.
Thursday, December 30
In Our Time, Radio 4, 9am
In years past the BBC would have given us movie retrospectives at Christmas. Such cultural programming is long gone so we’ll just have to settle for Melvyn Bragg and guests discussing the life and work of the director Fritz Lang, best known for Metropolis and M.
Hogmanay
Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Kitchen Disco New Year’s Eve, Radio 2, 7pm
Let Sophie kick the party off tonight. Much more fun than listening to your drunken uncle singing Delilah, surely?
Get It On … with Bryan Burnett, Radio Scotland, 10pm
And then you can see in the New Year with all that tedious shortbread and bagpipes stuff on the telly, or you can enjoy the reliable pleasure of Radio Scotland’s evergreen music request show. Go on, you really don’t need to hear Jools Holland shouting “Hootenanny” every five minutes this Hogmanay.
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