Life

Radio Review: Nursery rhymes on Q Radio

Nuala McCann

Nuala McCann

Nuala McCann is an Irish News columnist and writes a weekly radio review.

Nuala McCann
Nuala McCann Nuala McCann

Breakfast Q Radio

Short Cuts Radio 4

Did you ever really think about nursery rhymes? It made for wry chat on Q radio in the early morning.

Never mind Stormont, welfare reform and all the doom and gloom, what are we doing to our children?

The chat was about the old man who banged his head and went to bed and didn’t get up in the morning... he died, didn’t he? As for the three visually impaired rodents who were chased by the old woman with a big knife.

What are we teaching our children? You had to smile. It blew the dark clouds of the serious news away briefly.

Short Cuts on Radio 4 treated us to a lovely selection of brief encounters, true stories, radio adventures and found sound.

The theme was “the other”, from the other woman to the other Michael Jackson.

A name can link you inextricably to someone you have never met. For me, it is the other Nuala McCann out there who designs jewellery or the one who is the expert in cardiology – definitely not me.

What about being called Michael Jackson? It’s a torture. It seems that anyone landed with the label ends up calling themselves “Mike”.

When you say your name is Michael Jackson, people reply: “But I thought you were dead.”

At the airport, the man on the passport office asks: “Can you do the moon walk?”

“No, I am just going on holiday with my wife.”

“Who? Lisa Marie Presley?”

There was a brief moment meditating on the other James Bond and Harry Potter and even the man called John Lewis who has to sigh eternally: “Yes, like the department store”.

The drama of street theatre also turned very “other”. It started with a rabbit called Flopsy and a fake guillotine and ended with the players being arrested and interviewed by counter terrorism officers.

This was funny, wry, wistful and downright heart rending at times... but you wouldn’t expect any less from Falling Tree Productions.