Radio Picks of the Week

Two enquiring minds enjoy a freewheeling conversation as Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby meets comedy writer and actor John Cleese in The Archbishop Interviews (Sunday, Radio 4, 1.30pm).

From Welby’s opening question: “Does religion matter?” they go on to consider how humans, with all their foibles, interpret the Bible. At one point Cleese wonders: “Why do religions always get founded by mystics and finish up getting run by bureaucrats?” to which Welby retorts: “Who says they are finished up?”

One Moonlit Night (Sunday, Radio 4, 3pm) dramatises Caradog Prichard’s extraordinary Welsh novel in which a young boy in a remote north Wales village during the first world war makes forays into a community saturated with dark folklore. Home is hardly a place of refuge with his unhinged mother admonishing him: “Don’t go causing trouble driving village folks out of their minds now!” Dramatised by Rhiannon Boyle with a Welsh cast, this atmospheric production will also be broadcast in a twopart Welsh version on Radio Cymru on 11 and 18 June at 4pm.

As part of Dr Tristram Hunt’s enlightening documentary, Wedgwood: A Very British Tragedy (Monday, Radio 4, 8pm), artist Edmund de Waal explains how Josiah Wedgwood’s questing nature meant he was always thinking about the sources for his materials. He even asked explorer James Cook to bring him clay from Australia. In the end it was his development of jasperware in the 1770s, using a barium sulphate base that could take on any colour including the famous Wedgwood blue, that made his name. Yet Hunt relates how this Stoke-based family business lost its independence and went into catastrophic decline only now showing signs of recovery under changed ownership.

Back for a new series, Add to Playlist (Friday, Radio 4, 7.15pm) succeeds by giving its guest experts free reign when it comes to connecting different music tracks. Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye are joined by bassoonist Amy Harman and composer Gavin Higgins with all of them keen not to make their links too obvious. A lively programme travels from Dolly Parton to Portuguese fado singer Duarte with the odd surprise interview making the musical odyssey ever more fascinating.