Cracking trip down memory lane

RadioReview: It's Friday, it's five to five and it's . . . if you felt the urge to shout Crackerjack after reading that, then Janet Ellis's programme was for you. Crackerjack (BBC Radio 4, Tuesday) looked back at the children's television programme which was a Friday evening fixture on the BBC for 30 years and everyone who watched it would have given anything for a Crackerjack pencil.

It sounds quaint now but it was the ultimate prize in the children's variety programme that was a daft mix of songs, sketches, games and star guests all held together by a presenter, starting with Eamonn Andrews in 1955. Apparently the Dublin man had written a polite letter to the BBC asking for a job and, things being simpler back then, he got what turned out to be a 10-year gig. He bowed out to make way for Leslie Crowther.

"All the major stars came to twinkle for the children," said Andrews - and you can only assume that that line didn't sound as cheesy then as it does now. The show did get the big names though. Marianne Faithfull, The Monkees and Cliff Richard were some of the acts that performed on the live show because, in the days when the singles charts mattered and kids got pocket money on a Saturday, a plug on Crackerjack could make a huge difference to sales. Ellis said Boyzone were one of those star performers but as the show went off air in 1984 before the boy band was a twinkle in Louis Walsh's eye, it can't be true.

It all started to go pear-shaped in the early 1980s when the producers messed about with the formula, introducing glamorous female presenters and ditching some of the silly games.

It was a harmless and very pleasant trip down memory lane, a territory Angela McNamara wandered through in The State We Are In (Monday, RTÉ Radio 1). The latest six-part segment in the long-running series, which focuses on different aspects of Irish society, is currently looking at family relationships. Programme three dealt with grandparents and grandchildren and McNamara bemoaned the fact, as she sees it, that children are too busy with extra-curricular activities to sit quietly with their grandparents and learn from them. Hers was a storybook image balanced by other contributors who talked about grandparents who are far too busy getting on with their own lives to be waiting at home for their grandchildren to drop around and sit at their feet, and, anyway, some parents don't actually want their children to pick up too many of their grandparents' attitudes and opinions that were formed in a very different Ireland. All agreed that grandparents are, on the whole, a "good thing" and that intergenerational relationships are to be encouraged.

The vox pop at the beginning from two national schools in inner-city Dublin was another glimpse at how Irish society has changed in such a short time. "My nana is from Moldova," said one little boy - a county I'm absolutely sure I didn't know existed when I was their age and kicking off my Start-rites to settle down to watch Crackerjack. "My mam and dad don't live in the same house and I live with my gran," said another little girl. It would have added an interesting dimension had The State We Are In presenter sociologist Dr Jane Gray contributed more to the programme instead of just introducing her contributors whose comments, interesting as they were, tended towards the anecdotal.

It's not often you hear a full-blown row on radio, particularly on the usually very-well-brought-up BBC Radio 4; political spats, yes - they're so contrived they don't really count - but a row with bad language and full-frontal ferocity is as rare as a celebrity before a microphone who doesn't have something to promote. On the normally sedate Midweek (Wednesday, BBC Radio 4) black activist Darcus Howe suggested in a chippy sideswipe that comedian Joan Rivers might take offence at the word "black". Before you could say red rag and bull, Rivers was telling him in no uncertain and rather colourful terms to apologise for suggesting that she was racist. "It's like an episode of Oprah in here," interjected presenter Libby Purves somewhat weakly, revealing that daytime TV isn't her specialist subject. The viciousness and decibel level was more Jerry Springer territory. Howe was on Midweek to promote a film he has made, Rivers was promoting her concert tour. Earlier in the show the US comedian had challenged Howe on his racism-around-every-corner world view and offered instead the happy-clappy suggestion that "people are people, race doesn't matter and we should all just get on with it". The row calmed down eventually. "Please continue about your stupid film," said Rivers, having the last word.