Radio listener by Jim Gilchrist

By The Newsroom
Published 23rd Jul 2010, 18:56 BST
Updated 25th Jul 2010, 21:46 BST
Many decades ago, as a young lad, I used to find the William Stories jolly side-splitting, as they say, at the same time, even as a child, sensing that he came from a rather different, very English middle-class milieu than that other timeless imp, Oor Wullie, the dungareed Ariel of Auchenshuggle.

Many decades ago, as a young lad, I used to find the William Stories jolly side-splitting, as they say, at the same time, even as a child, sensing that he came from a rather different, very English middle-class milieu than that other timeless imp, Oor Wullie, the dungareed Ariel of Auchenshuggle.

But how does Richmal Crompton's stripy-capped, short-trousered schoolboy, who has been creating mayhem since the 1920s, go down in a post-imperial age of computer games and Harry Potter? You can find out as Martin Jarvis, the actor who has made the voice of William very much his own, reads three stories in Just William: Pursuin' Happiness, in which our hero does a Don Quixote and sets out, accompanied by his faithful squire Ginger, to right wrongs – whether they particularly want to be righted or not.

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Setting the world to rights is, of course, a universal preoccupation which, thanks to internet technology, has been expanded from the once mercifully limited domain of the barstool philosopher to a global welter of opinion, informed or, all too often, otherwise. In Jon Holmes' Mob Rule, the Radio 5 Live producer and comedian trawls BBC Have your Say and other comment websites, newspaper letters pages, blogs and social networking services such as Twitter to sound out what that amorphous and unpredictable entity known as "the people" feels should be done to solve the world's problems.

Holmes describes his programme as "Points of View for nutters", and who's to argue with him?

The hard realities of modern life are currently making themselves felt in no uncertain manner by the current generation of university graduates, as they end up stacking supermarket shelves or manning call centres. In The Graduate, Sarfraz Manzoor traces a year in the lives of six graduates from Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan universities as they try desperately to land worthwhile jobs.

As prospects of a career, once taken for granted, seem increasingly uncertain, they find themselves reassessing the once cherished concept of a university education.