Radio review: Chain Reaction | The First Time With . . .

Chain Reaction (Radio 4, Friday) – a great programme idea that regularly delivers excellent one-off interviews – ended its current run with Stephen Merchant quizzing Jarvis Cocker. Merchant said he was nervous about meeting an idol and sounded it, fluffing his lines and laughing a little too long and loud at a couple of funny asides. Still, adulation would be easy to slip into with the singer. His answers were quirky and sweet, dead-pan and otherworldly; just like his music, really. Asked what his idea of pop stardom was as a child, he said: "I could have someone on my payroll who would project episodes of Batman whenever I wanted." Jarvis talked about getting chilli pepper in his contact lenses, falling from a window higher than a double-decker bus ("I know because one went past") during a daredevil stunt, and his decision to protest against Michael Jackson at the Brit Awards. "What can you do," he explained, "but mime a fart?" There was another good music interview on Matt Everitt's The First Time With . . . (6Music, yesterday), featuring Bernard Sumner. I liked his recollections of the early days, learning from a How to Play the Guitar book in his grandmother's front room on a Sunday afternoon. "The next thing," he said, all matter of fact, "we formed Joy Division."