ALL changed, changed utterly? Well, I guess we’ll see, but, following the announcement of her passing on the evening of September 8, the death of the Queen ripped up broadcasting schedules over the last 10 days. You may have noticed.
I was making dinner and listening to Radio Scotland’s Get It On when the music faded out and a solemn voice announced the news. In the days that followed the BBC moved seamlessly into mourning mode. On Radio 4 and 5 Live people queued up to pay tributes and we learned much (too much?) about the recondite details of hereditary monarchy. The music stations, meanwhile, tweaked their playlists and had all their DJs speaking in hushed voices, with varying degrees of success. Musically, Radio 2 became a sea of gloopy lachrymosity, while 6 Music initially seemed to morph into the late lamented (by me, at any rate) Chill FM.
DJs sought to find the right tone. Channel-hopping around, it was actually Greg James on Radio 1 the day after the Queen’s death who seemed best to find the words to meet the moment for his audience; caring and attentive without being overbearing or sentimental.
If I’m honest, the republican in me (will I get arrested for saying as much?) got rather irked by all the “historic solemn majesty” stuff royal historians kept reeling off as the days passed. On Radio Scotland's Mornings programme on Monday presenter Connie McLaughlin suggested in passing that the monarchy was “above politics” at one point. Hmm, not so sure about that.
There has been a perhaps inevitable but still irksome element of performative mourning going on across the airwaves over the last week. Then again, that’s not all that was going on. There was real grief on show too, for the Queen, for what she represented and perhaps for the disappearance of the last link to the post-war settlement.
On Sunday afternoon on 5 Live sporting personalities lined up to pay their respects. Horse racing got its rightful due considering her love for the sport. But it was motor racing’s Sir Jackie Stewart who sounded most heartbroken. “I was very fortunate to say … I was a friend. She was just the most impressive person I’ve ever known in the world,” he told Steve Crossman.
By Tuesday events in Ukraine, the Northern Ireland Protocol and the cost of living crisis were sneaking back into the frame on Radio 4’s Today programme, but the pomp and ceremony was still never far away. Did any radio broadcaster really catch the moment, though? Not that I heard (let me know if you did). Too often they reverted to talking about what they were seeing in the pictures from TV, which felt a bit like an own goal.
All of which made the appearance of the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage on Tuesday’s Today programme reading his poem Floral Tribute, a double acrostic in tribute to the late Queen, all the more welcome. For some reason, his line “Rain on the black lochs and dark Munros” was the one thing that caught me out in all this.
The whole poem reminded me of the late Dennis Potter’s valedictory interview with Melvyn Bragg when the writer knew he was dying. “The nowness of everything is absolutely wondrous,” Potter told Bragg. This felt like a good week to be reminded of the wisdom of Potter’s words.
Listen Out For: Classic Scottish Albums, Radio Scotland, tonight, 6.30pm.
Davie Scott discusses the making of Idlewild’s The Remote Part with members of the band.
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