Meet the Cyborgs (R4) | iPlayer
The Split Second Decision (R4) | iPlayer
Aftermath: Shipman (R4) | iPlayer
BBC documentaries have seen me through several difficult times in my life, and right now is as tricky a time as any. These days, when a petulant tantrum leads to world-changing decisions, when malevolence and incompetence are sweeping through our political systems… I find that tales from a smaller world, with moderate, little lives, have a strong appeal.
But, of course, small people become involved in big events. They are swept up in larger situations. How they react is the subject of many a great story. It is always interesting. I listened to three histories of small people in a big world this week, and every one had something to say. First, I tried Meet the Cyborgs, one of the oddest things I have ever heard. Not due to its format – regulation Radio 4 – but because of its topic.
Frank Swain, who suffers from early hearing loss, has joined a small but significant community of humans who are enhancing their natural bodies with tech. We met a man who’d had two metal rods implanted into his chest. He hangs a small box off them and the box makes a buzz inside him every time he faces north. We met a woman who has had tech inserted so that she feels every single earthquake inside her when it happens. Another chap has antennas protruding from his head so that he can “hear” colour. Swain himself can now hear wifi signals. He let us hear them too: a crackly sound, then some rather nice synth riffs, the odd drum roll.
Strange days, indeed. Yet what I found stranger was the normality of the cyborgs. Most of them were a bit dull, to be really honest; their personalities easily trumped by their tech. You felt that their robotic extras were the equivalent of a jaunty hat: a conversation piece for those who find conversation difficult.
More tech in The Split Second Decision, a documentary on how humans make life-or-death choices in the blink of an eye. Kevin Fong, who flies with the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, described arriving into scenes of devastation, “scrabbling to catch up and trying to gain control”. “Later,” he said, “when we talk things through, I sometimes still have trouble understanding what has really happened.” Fong wanted to unpick the decision-making process under pressure: “the overlap between the technology that we rely upon… and the humans who use it”.
Sounds like a job for a cyborg! But, no. Instead, Fong spent a good part of his documentary considering time, and how we measure it, as well as the way our brains work in stressed situations. He spent a little too long on the former, for me, but that’s a minor complaint. Time is stretchy, as we all know.
Time also, supposedly, heals all wounds, but I don’t believe that for a minute. And Aftermath, Alan Dein’s new series, proves the point. You can’t wish away the effects of a bad experience. You can only learn to live with your scars. Dein, whose programmes are always interesting (he’s one of the most consistent radio documentary-makers working in the UK), went to Hyde, where Harold Shipman was once the GP. He met relatives of Shipman’s victims, and also other patients, who said Shipman was a lovely man, a great GP.
Dr Amir Hannan, who came in as GP after Shipman was convicted on multiple counts of murder, had a tricky time of it. But he let his patients see his computer screen, showed them everything in their records, and gradually gained their trust.
Sarah Sands, currently the editor of London’s Evening Standard, is to become editor of the Today programme. I wonder what she’ll do to gain the trust of listeners? Interviewed by Andrea Catherwood on The Media Show, Sands was diplomatic to the point of dullness. She seemed to be unwilling to change much at all: “I come as a respectful listener.” Let’s hope she’s brave enough to put a check on the number of loons that have been appearing on Radio 4’s most venerable institution? Presenting both sides of an argument is in the BBC’s blood, but when one side’s argument is patent rubbish, why air it at all?
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