At 5.45 on Thursday’s PM on Radio 4 last week, Eddie Mair introduced an item like this: “It’s one of the hazards of being a baby: you’re lying back in your cot or pram, enjoying the view of the ceiling or maybe those bright, plastic shiny things suspended above you, when some adult hoves into view, speaking in that baby voice, telling you you’ve got the ‘hands of a concert pianist’ or ‘legs of a footballer’. They’re invariably wrong. But sometimes they’re right. A few years ago Pete Edwards looked at his 18-month-old grandson and saw… something.”
What followed lasted for more than nine minutes but consisted of just two interviews and one short clip of football commentary. I won’t spoil it for you, except to say that an epic tale unfolds, explaining exactly how the man mentioned in the intro won a lot of money.
It was riveting radio because the tale was told so skilfully; teasingly almost. By the end every detail that the listener was prompted to wonder about had been covered.
Although it was a surprising story it was also a simple one. It could have been thrown away in a couple of sentences. But PM turned it into much more: it feels almost like a well-written film, cleverly juggling times and places.
Have a listen: you won’t be disappointed. It starts at 45 minutes 44 seconds into this timeline.
What I particularly like about Eddie Mair’s tone is that, however unexpected the twists and turns of the story, he doesn’t get excited or indignant, or anything else much, beyond a little warm amusement. He leaves any stronger reactions for the listener.
Driving along the A3, mentally I was far from the Guildford bypass; I was with Pete Edwards in his caravan in Buckinghamshire for his pylon job, watching football on his iPad. And I’m not even a sports fan.
