Musician and art critic George Melly talks to Paul Allen.
Programme details
The theme of tonight's Night Waves is old age and our changing attitudes towards the elderly. Is growing old "like being increasingly penalised for a crime you haven't committed" or does old age in the modern world offer increasing rewards?
Jazz singer, surrealist and raconteur George Melly is rapidly approaching his eighties. His latest book, Slowing Down, is a frank and sometimes cheerful account of his ageing and impending retirement. The book ranges from intimate descriptions of his visits to Hospitals and specialists and the mounting problems of travelling around the city, to recollections of old friends and indulgences - like drink, sex and tobacco. In tonight's Night Waves George Melly talks to Paul Allen about his slide into old age and the effects of ageing on his music, his personality and his love of life.
The Long History of Old Age, edited by Pat Thane, is an exploration of how attitudes towards old age have shifted over the centuries and describes how many of our contemporary worries about old age spring from misconceptions of the past. In the past did the majority fail to even experience old age? Were men and women aged fifty really considered "old"? How old is "old" in today's world and are expectations and fears of ageing and decay any different than in the past? Paul Allen is joined by Pat Thane, the historian Joanna Bourke and the opera director and scientist Jonathan Miller.
Old age - what does it mean for us today and what is it good for?
Night Waves - as sprightly as ever - on the subject on old age, this Friday live at 9.30 presented by Paul Allen here on BBC Radio 3.
