DON’T mention the war? We never stop speaking about the bloody war in this country. Another week, another anniversary to remind us how Britain won it (no need to mention the Russians or the Americans or the Commonwealth or anyone else).

Another chance for politicians to wheel out some policy (last weekend it was the fatuous idea of national service) which speaks to some fantasy notion of post-war Britain that has nothing to do with the reality of that time, while studiously eliding the fact that at the end of the war the general public voted for radical change in the shape of the welfare state.

In short, baby boomer cosplay from the same people who have spent the last 40 years rolling back the legacy of that war. God, I’m sick of it.

And yet, as Radio 4’s new series D-Day: The Last Voices, reminded us this week, June 6 will see the 80th anniversary of D-Day. And the Normandy Landings - “the largest armada ever assembled in human history,” presenter Paddy O’Connell reminded us - is a pivot point in not just Britain’s story but the world’s.

To mark the occasion, these short, sharp programmes, just 15 minutes a day, stretched across the week, offered an oral history of that moment in time from those who were there. It did so via new interviews and the use of historical recordings. 

Those we heard speaking included Group Captain James Stagg, the Scottish meteorologist who was a key adviser to General Eisenhower, and Pat Owtram, a German-speaking Wren who was based on the Dover Cliffs (that’s her on the cover of the latest Radio Times).

“Pat told me, by the way, that she’s also the only old lady on her street who can use a machine gun,” O’Connell pointed out on Monday’s programme.

And we met the soldiers who took part in the landings. “We were told not to expect to come back,” one admitted. Thankfully, he did.

The result was a martial history that mostly featured British and American voices  (a bit of a weakness, I’d suggest) that at times was also a bit Commando Comics, quite frankly (albeit with more “forceful” dialogue).

For example? On Tuesday Private Wally Parr recalled capturing an enemy artillery weapon which he then used to fire at German gunboats. 

“I’ve never seen a boat do a U-turn so quick,” he said. “And before it disappeared around the bend I managed to put three out of four shots up its backside. I must admit … it gave me the greatest personal delight on D-Day to sit behind a German captured gun firing German ammunition up German arseholes.”

I guess if anyone is allowed to come out with that kind of squaddie rhetoric it’s the veterans themselves. And at least the series didn’t avoid the violence and horror of the landings themselves. “It was carnage,” one soldier recalled. “There were bodies everywhere.”

War is hell. It always will be. 

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Time for an abrupt gear change.  

“Scotland’s Trashcan Sinatras have created some of the saddest, most beautiful music you’ve ever heard. Laments for the lovesick and world-weary, coupled with the jangliest of pop. They’ve landed and lost a record deal and overcome every kind of adversity to release six wonderful albums you need to hear.”

That was how Ken Sweeney introduced his documentary on Ayrshire’s (and Scotland’s?) finest band on Radio Nova on Sunday night, proving that Irish radio sometimes does a better job of celebrating Scottish pop than Scotland itself. (Scottish fans can listen back on Nova.ie or visit Sweeney’s own Soundcloud page: soundcloud.com/ken-sweeney-991302946.)

In a better world than this one, the Trashcans would be the biggest Scottish band of the last 30 years with all the critical acclaim of the Teenage Fanclub and the hits of Texas.

But this isn’t that world. So it was a delight to find a programme that committed the best part of an hour in order to do the band justice. 

Sweeney spoke to band members and uncovered stories of childhood shoplifting, meeting Frank Sinatra’s “people”, hideous tax bills, busking on the London underground and a near-death experience, whilst all the while reminding us of the band’s shimmering back catalogue.

As someone who firmly believes the band’s Obscurity Knocks is a contender for best Scottish debut single ever (hmm, note to self for elsewhere in this publication), this was catnip. 

 

Listen Out For: The Folk Show, Wednesday, June 5, 9pm

Shaun Keaveny concludes his stint on Radio 2 sitting in for Mark Radcliffe in the company of special guest Josienne Clarke, the award-winning Scottish-based folk singer, whose striking new album Parenthesis, I is well worth your time.