It took a while to realise that The End (Radio 4) had begun. This was a programme about ending that yearned to be an elegant essay, delivered in snippets by various unrelated and often irritating voices. The voices included artist Maggi Hambling, Romeo from the Magic Numbers, writer Deborah Moggach, plus an unidentified chess player, an explorer, and a woman talking about the end of her relationships. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to know who the last three were, and especially with the woman (why were her relationships of such interest?) this niggled.
It started out with what sounded like the highlights in soundbites, but this was the format throughout: a clip of one person saying something, followed by another. After a while, despite some lively comment ("paintings can live and die, live and die, come alive and die, come alive and die, and if it finally does die, you have to get rid if it," boomed Hambling), this dreary layering of statements - akin to eavesdropping only one side of a conversation - was ultimately enervating. In fact, I couldn't wait for it to end.
