Kate Chisholm

Chance encounters

Plus: two great moments on Desert Island Discs and the resurrection of an early masterclass from Tom Stoppard

issue 16 January 2016

Some might say that Jeremy Corbyn is cloth-eared, tone-deaf, socially inept but on Monday morning, as the death of the pop artist David Bowie scrambled the agenda on Radio 4’s Today programme, he was as graceful and twinkle-toed as Bowie himself. The opposition leader had been invited on to the ‘big slot’ just after the eight o’clock bulletin to talk about his ‘shock’ reshuffle last week. David Cameron and the Archbishop of Canterbury, no less, had already provided their rent-a-quote verdicts on Bowie’s life and death. Nick Robinson asked Corbyn for his thoughts. Quick as a flash, he responded, ‘Does that mean I’m joining the great and the good…?’ Before adding his own more measured response: ‘I think it’s great that we’re spending time — just a few minutes — remembering a great musician, a great entertainer, and somebody that really represents all that’s best in the fantastic cultural diversity of this country.’ Right-on, Jeremy.

It’s been a week of serendipitous moments on radio, surprising, memorable, moving, which those who’ve switched to podcasting (the number is increasing day on day) will rarely experience — the magic of hearing something or someone you didn’t at all expect and would never have chosen to listen to. On Sunday I caught by chance Desert Island Discs (produced by Sarah Taylor). Kirsty Young’s guest was a voice I didn’t recognise, which turned out to be Alex Crawford, the foreign correspondent for Sky News. I came in midway through and at first found it hard to engage. Crawford’s choice of music (Fergie, Slumdog Millionaire, Jessie J) was nothing special, the conversation quite matter-of-fact. But then Young asked her, ‘Is there a particular time when you have seriously feared for your life?’ Crawford took us back to an experience in Libya when she (and her camera team) were holed up in a mosque for four hours while it was bombarded with tank fire and other ammunition.

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