An excellent documentary about self-improvement manuals (The Grandfather of Self Help, 2 July, 11.30am, Radio 4) told the story of the journalist Samuel Smiles, whose book Self Help was published on the same day as The Origin of Species in 1859, and went on to sell more copies than the Bible that century.

Still a huge seller in Japan, Smiles’s book promotes “energetic action” and “unremitting study”, insisting we can [...]

Two programmes about jazz have delighted your reviewer. The first was an appreciation of the great alto saxophonist Bud Shank (Jazz Library, 20 June, 4pm, Radio 3), who died in April. Through extracts from an interview given in 1995, Shank recalled his residency at the Lighthouse club on Hermosa Beach, California, in the 1950s, where he would sometimes play for 12 hours at a stretch to fans covered in sand.

Two minutes into Zoë Ball’s new breakfast show (Radio 2, Saturdays, 6am-8am) and it was “Hello to Doug in Indiana . . . Phil in Portsmouth . . . Katie in the florist in Tadcaster . . . Jeff and Charlotte in Pembrokeshire . . .”

Momentarily lifting her head from the list, she spoke to her dad on the phone, who set listeners a conundrum about socks on a [...]

Radio 2’s excellent four-part series on Charles Aznavour (Bonjour Mr Aznavour, which started 22 May, 7pm) has taught us, among other things, that the great man once sold chocolate and stockings to the Nazis. Aznavour, who has since recorded more than a thousand of his own songs in a 60-year career, learned his trade at the feet of Édith Piaf, whom he met at a nightclub in Paris when he [...]

The cross-network Haydn season starts in earnest this month on Radio 3, marking the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death with orchestral performances live from Paris, Oxford and Vienna. On Radio 4, a couple of teaser Haydn documentaries have tickled your reviewer, especially Hunting Haydn’s Head, (30 May, 10.30am), in which zealous fans stole the maestro’s skull after his death.

Previously, we had followed the 58-year-old composer to London, where [...]

Some things I heard on the radio this week: “I’ve got strong beliefs about one particular plant and I’m not gonna give it up at the point of a gun,” said Steve on Martha’s Vineyard Radio. “If we wanna get off this whole Middle Eastern oil situation we have to grow more hemp.” The show was Perspectives, in which people phone up and diss each other over various issues, but [...]

How’s this for greatest fantasy gigs?

You’re a music journalist in March 1969 and you get a phone call saying to come to Ronnie Scott’s in Soho because The Who are going to be playing through a musical they’ve been working on, and you get there and it’s you, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, Roger Daltrey and Keith Moon, and they do the whole of Tommy – just guitar, bass, [...]

At 7am on Sunday, the DJ Nick Grimshaw clocked on shift for the second day of Radio 1’s Big Weekend live from Swindon (9-10 May, all day, Radio 1).

“Hey, hello to Hayley on text, and hello to anyone pressing the red button,” he said, embracing his signature style of blustery northern delirium. “People do weird things on Sunday mornings. Why not come and show off on air, or [...]

On Sunday Worship from Wesley’s Chapel in the City of London (3 May, 8.10am, Radio 4), the Reverend Fiona Stewart-Darling calmly welcomed her congregation. “As chaplain to the business sector in the Docklands,” she soothed, “I know more than ever that we are living in a global economy with global effects.”

She then recommended that we attempt an appeal to the god of the whole universe who rules over [...]

On 5 Live Katie Price was preparing to run the London Marathon (Sunday 26 April, 9am-12am). “Are you going to love this?” asked the on-the-ground reporter, Sonia McLoughlin. “I am not going to love this,” said Price. “After about 15 miles, my legs go.”

“Don’t diss yourself, babe,” said her husband, Peter André, in the background signing autographs.

“Let’s look at your T-shirt, Katie,” said Sonia. “You’re running with a [...]