This article is taken from the December-January 2026 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Get five issues for just £25.
Radio Times has a comforting ring. People have been reading the weekly listings magazine for 102 years, which means it is only one year younger than the BBC, whose radio programmes it was set up to promote — though listeners would have said they were tuning into “the wireless”.
People still read Radio Times; more than 400,000 every week, it is believed. But these days it is a different beast to the publication which put Valerie Singleton (and Shep) on the cover. At times it seems to be the mouthpiece of the BBC’s re-education unit, where offenders are liable to be punished strictly if they do not pay attention.
One of the first editors, between 1927 and 1933, was Eric Maschwitz, who enjoyed a life of remarkable variety. He is best-known for writing the words of two standards, “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” and “These Foolish Things”, which was revived stylishly by Bryan Ferry, but he did plenty of other things.
He had a hand in the screen adaptation of Goodbye, Mr Chips, which brought Robert Donat an Academy Award for best actor in 1940, Hollywood’s annus mirabilis.
That was the year of Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Wuthering Heights, Stagecoach, Ninotchka, and Mr Smith Goes to Washington, so Donat’s prize was worth winning. Maschwitz wrote the screenplay with R.C. Sherriff, author of Journey’s End. There was a lot of talent in those days, often found in unlikely places.
There still is, though that doesn’t mean unlikely places always supply the talent required. The leading feature in a recent RT was a strange interview with Tom Daley, the diver, by Simon Hattenstone. By day Hattenstone scribbles for the Guardian, where he comes across as a bit of a grump; a Mancunian grump, to boot, who rarely misses a chance to tell readers he supports “Citeh”.
So the interview with Diver Daley was a curio. Hattenstone of Prestwich put his blue scarf away and launched a robust challenge for the annual Cherry Blossom award! Out came the tins and brushes. Let me polish those lovely boots of yours, Master Tom.
The reason for this obeisance was Daley’s appearance as presenter on a Channel 4 series, Game of Wool. Yes, you read that right. A TV show devoted to knitting! Just what viewers have pined for all these years.
“It’s hard to believe he’s 31,” simpered Hattenstone. The ruthless interviewer held his hand all the way, nodding like Churchill the insurance dog about the sexist and ageist clichés which bedevil the art of knitting.
Daley, a Devonian who now lives in California with his film-maker husband Dustin, thinks little of Donald Trump. Fair enough. That doesn’t grant him membership of an exclusive club, even if the President, who is not a shy man, has had nothing to say on the subject of homosexuality.
Which brings us to the nub of this matter. Daley was presented to RT readers not only as a star of the top board, but also as a participant in what Philip Larkin called Christopher Isherwood’s “‘I’m a queer’ act”. Why? The battle was won long ago. The combatants have left the field. The banners are food for moths.
So when then plucky diver says “it’s a scary time for minorities all over the world”, a phrase lifted by the editor to accompany a picture of Daley in full fig, he is giving the magazine what it hopes readers want: a celebrity taking up cudgels on behalf of a noble cause.
It may be a bad time in certain countries for minorities — history reveals that most times are. But Los Angeles has never been particularly intimidating for those who march to a different drum.
Daley could hardly have found a more welcoming berth for a spot of weaving. As waves lash the Pacific coastline, and the great orb smiles on all, he can count his millions without fear of a midnight knock.
Another notch, then, for the progressives, who never sleep. A hero of the pool has been offered to readers of the BBC house magazine as a warrior for social justice, tickled up by a contributor to “the world’s leading liberal voice”, as the Guardian has anointed itself.
Let’s hear a bit more about Daley’s “knitting journey”. As soon as he realised he was more than a diver, he said, “I was a parent, husband, friend, son, knitter. It gave me a different perspective and allowed me to flourish.” If that’s what a pair of needles does for a chap, he probably puts sugar on his chips, too.
Elsewhere the Radio Times encourages readers to follow “the ever-reliable” David Olusoga on his BBC2 series, Empire, whilst Intimate Histories on Radio 4 “isn’t about dusty dates and the great deeds of famous people (mostly men)”.
Yes, we get the picture.
