JFK: the First Pop President
Radio 2
A documentary about JFK (24 May, 10pm) rendered your reviewer awestruck at the wildness of its views. "He's become a mythical figure in many ways," claimed one contributor. "There's a romantic view of him that obtains." Another, with surely total disregard for his position and reputation, suggested: "It was all very glamorous with Jack and Jackie. A Hollywood union, really. At the wedding, there was a list of celebrities, so to speak - by which I mean 'star folk', who were invited . . ."
The programme was presented by the actor Robert Vaughn, in the same conspiratorial way he speaks into Steve McQueen's ear in Bullitt. And then, just occasionally, he would straighten up and talk like he was giving evidence at a congressional hearing. "I watched that first TV debate with great interest, yes. Kennedy looked excellent. He was beautifully clothed. He had a very tan countenance."
One immediately slid down Vaughn's voice and into his house in Bel Air. A neat pool, not overly chlorinated. Drinks at six, the colour of water, with a plate of something dry and savoury. The occasional bug, droning into the heat. "Now, let's hear from novelist and playwright, and my friend, Gore Vidal," said Vaughn - and on came Vidal in that languid, inexpressive way, the voice occasionally tensing when he was about to say something sarcastic, endlessly projecting the feeling that this was all so American, and all so long ago. Then back came the freaky inverted commas. "Oh, Jack was definitely a 'cad'. He had an 'eye for the ladies'. There were 'one-night stands', so to speak. There were wild Hollywood parties involving 'call girls'."
Just when it couldn't get much weirder, up popped Micky Dolenz of the Monkees. "Can you imagine what that poor guy would be going through now? I mean, oh Lord, hahahaaa, he'd make Tiger Woods look like, oh hee hee, Lord, oh, incredible."
A gorgeous edition of Open Book (23 May, 4pm, Radio 4) considered Paul Gallico's novella The Snow Goose, and in particular Peter Scott's commissioned portrait of a young woman holding a goose on the cover of the original edition. The subject turned out to be Scott's one-time wife Elizabeth Jane Howard, who sat for the portrait during a gruesome sea crossing to America - the roughest in 30 years - with hundreds of GI brides.
“Oh, you'll find a blonde around here," she told her husband and settled into her bunk with a copy of Shirley. But all the other blondes on board were as sick as dogs. "They look like back ends of buses," grumbled Scott, looking at her meaningfully. So EJH posed instead, holding a cushion and pretending it was the bird. "I'm not sure I looked fond enough of the goose," she complained here, during an interview in which she spoke of Scott rather as if she'd married him briefly just to see what it would be like and then moved on, walking always straight ahead, rapt in her own thoughts, a receiver of gazes.
Quote of the week came care of the current owner of the south Lincolnshire lighthouse and nesting site that inspired Gallico's story. Apparently, he has a favourite goose called Annabel that returns every year to see him, sometimes staying for months: "If you're good to a goose, anything can happen."
