Radio Review: 27 August

It’s hard to convey information in a light-hearted manner. The problem is striking the right balance. Harry Shearer’s Anatomy Of A Guitar, part of BBC Radio 2’s Guitar Season, managed it. Shearer is probably best known as the voice of numerous characters in The Simpsons, but to the cognoscenti, he will always be Spinal Tap’s bassist Derek Smalls. This was his qualification for hosting, for he doesn’t play guitar.

On hand to take Shearer through the history of the instrument was Dr Mark Lewney (pronounced ‘Loony’, although he sounded perfectly sane to me), an expert on the physics of musical instruments and a pretty good guitarist himself.

The pair were aided and abetted by comedian Mitch Benn and top session guitarist Mitch Dalton. You’ve probably heard the latter without knowing it, as he’s worked with just about everyone. Benn used a stick dulcimer to show how Neolithic man invented Status Quo while Dalton played a spine-tingling solo of The Shadow Of Your Smile to show how harmonics and electric guitars worked. It made informative, tuneful, funny listening on a night listeners received the sad news that announcer James Alexander Gordon had died. I’m not a football fan, but then I’m not a trawlerman either, and that doesn’t stop me listening to the Shipping Forecast. So it was with JAG ’s football results. I never met the man, but, as is often the way with the intimate medium of radio, I felt I knew him a little.

Behind Broadcasting House is a pub favoured by announcers, presenters, actors, scriptwriters and producers (to say nothing of certain radio critics) called The Yorkshire Grey. It’s known as ‘Studio YG1’, an abbreviation that was Gordon’s coinage. RIP JAG . 

Louis on Twitter: @LFBarfe or email: wireless@cheeseford.net