Radio: A reminder that medieval politics was a dangerous business

The Herald Scotland

6 days ago

'He's not just a skull,' the Reverend Andrew Doarks, the church's current rector pointed out on Radio 4 on Sunday evening. 'People call it the head because he's got a bit of vertebrae .. And there's an ear … And there are bits of skin still on him. So, we call him Simon's Head.'
And where, you might ask, is Simon's body? That will be in Canterbury Cathedral where, instead of a head, Simon of Sudbury is buried, it is said, topped by a cannonball.
The headless Archbishop, or rather the Archbishop's head, was the latest subject in Radio 4's Illuminated slot. Don't Lose Your Head! was a reminder that medieval politics was a dangerous business. Simon of Sudbury had gone into the church and proved himself useful by negotiating peace treaties with both the French and the Scots (we're more than two centuries before even the Union of the Crowns here).
But then Simon found himself trapped at the Tower of London when the Peasants' Revolt kicked off over the poll tax.
He was decapitated and his head was used for a kickabout. (No link is made to the Lionesses at this point, which may be the only time that hasn't happened on radio this week).
The rebels also nailed Simon's mitre onto his detached noggin. Lovely.
Presenter Robin Markwell's documentary had things to say about corporality and spirituality, but this was at heart a pleasingly straightforward, if gruesome, slice of history.
There was a lot of it about on Radio 4 this week. Scottish writer Laura Cumming's new series Speed of Light - stretched across the week at 11.45am - saw her examine the early years of the history of photography and its role in recording history. In the process it also made history.
This was a quiet, unassuming series. Just Cummings's words and voice, accompanied by a spot of music. But the result was fascinating; particularly on Monday and Tuesday when she revealed the importance of Scots-born photographers in the visual history of both the United States of America and Canada.
Monday's programme explored the work of American civil war photographer Alexander Gardner - born in Paisley - who photographed the Battle of Antietam. Gardner also took the famous 'cracked-plate' portrait of Abraham Lincoln just two months before the President's assassination by John Wilkes Booth.
Booth, by the way, was a well known actor whose face was familiar to many in the United States via photography. That familiarity ultimately didn't help the actor. He was gunned down by Union soldiers 12 days after he killed the President. The power of the photograph in action, you might say.
On Tuesday Cumming headed north to examine the work of another Paisley buddie, William Notman who emigrated to Canada in 1856, where he pursued his interest in photography, taking photographs of Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull and Canadians both grand and ordinary; from the country's first Prime Minister, Sir John Macdonald, a fellow Scot, to moose hunters and the men laying the country's railways.
New to me, his photographs are, you have to say, a delight and such is Cumming's way with words you don't mind that you can't see them on the radio. Her descriptions are vivid. But they do push you to Google them. It's worth the effort.
Either Notman or Gardner would be a good exhibition subject for the Paisley Museum when it finally reopens, by the way.
As Alison Rowat has already noted elsewhere in The Herald, Scottish writer Irvine Welsh has been on the publicity circuit in support of his new novel Men In Love, a sequel to Trainspotting. (I'm about two-fifths of the way through it as I type this. It's very blokey, very Welshy, very readable.)
On Saturday morning - the day before he turned up on Channel 4's Sunday Brunch (see Alison's column) - he was on 6 Music talking to Chris Hawkins about Oasis, his 'serial raver' days, his guilty love of disco when he was a punk and this moment we are currently in.
'They're pretty dark times right now. The internet has not been kind to us," Welsh said, condemning the power of this billionaire elite. 'You think to yourself, 'This is horrible, but what is it that is good in life?' And what's good in life is love.'
Dig deep enough and you'll find that every old punk is a disappointed hippy at heart.
Listen Out For: Stuart Mitchell's Cost of Dying, Radio 4, August 6, 11pm
If the idea of attending the Fringe brings you out in hives then you can always get your comedy quotient on Radio 4. Scottish comedian Stuart Mitchell, a regular on Radio Scotland's comedy panel show Breaking the News, has a new Radio 4 series which begins with a look at end-of-life care. Might be a challenge to make that funny, but Mitchell is up to it.