This week's show
It's unfortunate that the programme is being recorded tonight in London rather than Glasgow, for reasons that will be clear to anyone who tried to get to work in the capital this morning. I'm writing this from home, hoping that the buses are working tomorrow. Not so fortunate are the members of the team who have to get to and from the studio so that the show can go out tomorrow night. If the audience looks a little thin, you'll know the reason [we actually had to record without an audience in the end].
Despite the difficulties, it should be a great programme. In the first of two items about the hugely successful TV company HBO, Greg Dyke watches them clear the board at the Golden Globes and investigates how they have managed to combine financial and critical success. That's not to say there isn't a bit of an HBO backlash going on - I noticed a few comments in response to today to the effect that so many people were going on about series like The Wire and Deadwood that it was putting everyone else off. I know just what they mean; I hate the way people constantly go on about how elegant and funny Jane Austen's prose is. The only way to respond to such hype is to refuse to read the novels at all. I'm a few episodes into John Adams now and will have more to say on it later in the week.
Alfred Brendel photographed by Barbara Klemm
The second major item in the show is about the pianist Alfred Brendel's love of surrealism and the absurd and how that feeds into his poetry. We'll be marking Brendel's retirement as a performer with a special on 3 March, but tonight's programme should show an intriguing side to a great musician. There are a couple of other programmes about Brendel this week - the documentary Man and Mask tonight and Brendel in Performance tomorrow.
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