Melinda Hughes is an opera singer and satirist.
From our UK edition
17 min listen
This week: Richard Madeley reads his diary in the magazine, including recollections of his Sunday lunch with George Michael (00:58). Also, Daniel Johnson shares a touching tribute to his late father Paul Johnson (05:36) and Melinda Hughes asks why BBC Radio 3 is dumbing down (12:28). Produced and presented by Oscar Edmondson.
From our UK edition
39 min listen
On the podcast this week: In his cover piece for the magazine Iain Macwhirter writes in the aftermath of the government’s decision to block the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill from gaining Royal Assent. He joins the podcast with Observer columnist Sonia Sodha to discuss the Union’s new battle line (01:03). Also this week: why are our prisons still in lockdown? Charlie Taylor, HM’s Chief Inspector of Prisons writes about some of his recent observations visiting institutions around the country. He says that control measures are failing both inmates and the taxpayer. He is joined by journalist David James Smith to examine this post-Covid inertia in UK prisons (16:48).
From our UK edition
In March, Alan Davey will step down as the controller of BBC Radio 3. His role over the past eight years has been huge. Not only has he overseen programming and strategy for Radio 3 and BBC orchestras, but he has also championed access to contemporary music and focused on forgotten past composers, many of whom are female. All very impressive. But there’s no escaping the fact that under his watch there has been a general dumbing-down of programming. Each year, the BBC Proms finds a new way to diversify its output, from proms based around video games, to rap, to an ‘Ibiza-style’ dance party. Even more egregiously, two years ago Radio 3 rebranded its late-morning show as Essential Classics.
From our UK edition
I have just been proposed to in a somewhat slatternly tiki bar in Mayfair. Not just any tiki bar, but Trader Vic’s, the Polynesian-themed restaurant and lounge underneath the London Hilton on Park Lane. Approaching its 60th anniversary, the bar has seen better days, but for historical purposes my partner of 12 years decided that this dimly lit den would be the location for the proposal of a lifetime. Then wouldn’t you know it – just two weeks later I discover that this cavern of delight where I spent many birthdays is being evicted and will close on 31 December. Trader Vic’s began in the 1950s, when Victor Jules Bergeron Jr. (Trader Vic himself) teamed up with Western Hotels in the US to turn his already popular tropical-themed bar and restaurant into a franchise.
From our UK edition
For the past few weeks there’s been a 7 p.m. curfew in Barbados as part of what the government calls a ‘national pause’ (lockdown, essentially). I’m actually grateful because it’s been manic lately. The excitement started with the visit of Captain Sir Tom Moore in December. I was commissioned by a golfing group called the ‘Sandy Lane Swingers’ to write and perform a song, ‘Marching on to Victory’, at a charity lunch. It’s a jaunty tune, composed by my co-writer Jeremy Limb, with a singalong at the end. Captain Tom joined in, waving his napkin in the air. As an encore I sang a verse of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ and he mouthed all the words.
