Email
The Story of Music in 50 Pieces (R3) | BBC podcasts
In Search of the British Dream (R4) | iPlayer
On Thursday, at a do with canapes, and – more excitingly – acoustic performances from the likes of Jake Bugg, the BBC announced that, chez Beeb, 2013 is to be "alive with music". Well, good. As music on TV never gets very high ratings (unless it's that strange pretend pop – all noise, no joy — you get on Saturday night talent shows), it can be hard for our national broadcaster to justify its music coverage. So a commitment to broadcast Glastonbury as though it's the Olympics is heartening, if slightly boggling. Presumably this means that if you can't face the Rolling Stones' OAP marathon, you can quickly red button it to watch a bloke on a fixed bike generator cycling like a madman so that there's enough power for his mate to sing about climate change.
And, of course, there's always radio, music's long-time lover and friend. As the BBC worships a cross-platform format, we're set for a few more series like Howard Goodall's The Story of Music in 50 Pieces, which is both a Saturday night BBC2 show and a neat little insert in Radio 3's schedules. From Monday this week until 1 March, Goodall is popping up twice a day on Radio 3 to tell us about a piece of music that he thinks changed the game; surprisingly interesting for those of us not au fait with the vagaries of plainsong and madrigals. His second choice was by John Dunstable, who, he explained, was the first composer to write using three notes to form a chord, the middle note often being a third. Dunstable's music spread around Europe and was, asserted Goodall, Britain's first real major contribution to world musical change. (The second was the Beatles, by the way.) You can sign up for the podcasts, each only around six minutes long and packed with information.
In a week that revealed that the second language in Britain is now Polish, and that migrants contribute more money to their country of origin than global aid, there was a timely three-parter on Radio 4. In Search of the British Dream wondered what it is about today's Great Britain that attracts so many foreigners, and what makes them stay.
Presenter Mukul Devichand talked to various GB-lovers – residents who originally came from Nigeria, Sudan, Slovakia, Saudi Arabia. In the past 10 years there has been a 66% increase in foreigners making Britain their home: 3 million new people. Devichand made comparisons with the emigres into the US in the early part of last century, and recited the message on the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…" Is that our attitude today? He spoke to a group of Roma getting off a coach in Bradford in the rain, literally laughing out loud in happiness at arriving here. But why?
Many immigrants, it was explained, come to Britain via the EU: they start off in Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, but come to the UK because we are, mostly, less racist. Aren't we? We can still be judgmental. Kevin from Nigeria admitted that he originally came to Germany on a false passport and lied about being a political refugee. (He said he was from Sudan.) He married a German woman, thus becoming a legal EU citizen, and they moved to the UK. Where they live now, with their four kids in a council flat. This is progress for Kevin. He's happy. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this story. Should we celebrate his ambition, his guile, his perseverance? Or worry that we're paying for his housing? What about the young girl, dumped here by her dad, living with a woman who didn't feed her, unable to get free school meals because she has no legal papers? She got herself a boyfriend in a gang just for protection. She also got herself a university place, but without papers she can't take it up.
What attracts people to the UK, it turns out, is our education, our tolerance, our fairness. Which is strange, because living here it seems as though all these societal pillars are toppling, crumbling away under the onslaughts of recession and overpopulation. "There's not enough room," said a man from MigrationWatchUK, as he would. Devichand spoke to people who are living here illegally, and others who blagged their way in. He did so without rancour or opinion, extracting their stories through gentle questioning. In doing so, he revealed their hopes and confronted us with our prejudices. Recommended.
