This week’s best radio: Iceland’s Dark Lullabies

In Iceland’s Dark Lullabies (18 December, 8pm, Radio 4) Andri Snær Magnason takes us on a bone-chilling but absorbing journey back to the pre-Christian midwinter festival of Yule. In the middle of the north Atlantic, people felt more need than most for something to get them through the long winter. In Iceland, the promised cheer of life indoors was in direct proportion to the terrors lurking out there in the dark and snow. Via Icelandic folklore grandmothers still terrify their small charges with tales of creatures that eat little ones who don’t do as they are told. As he reflects: “There wasn’t much you could do if somebody wandered out into the dark so these stories acted as an invisible fence.”

Are You Alright in There? (22 December, 11.30am, Radio 4) is not about popping round to make sure your elderly neighbour is OK. It’s Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris, bestselling authors of the spoof Ladybird books, on the phenomenon of the toilet book, a genre on which publishers roll their dice at this time of year. Specifically, this is the world of 101 Uses for a Dead Cat, the Viz annual, The Meaning of Liff and many others you probably have somewhere. We hear from authors, agents, booksellers and publishers about the difference between hit and miss in this lucrative corner of the market.

The Dead Ringers Christmas Special (22 December, 6.30pm, Radio 4) features Jon Culshaw and friends celebrating the true meaning of Christmas: political in-fighting, sex scandals and the festering world of Brexit division. In another Christmas tradition, Rick Wakeman takes to the piano to play festive favourites on Simon Mayo (19 December, 5pm, Radio 2).

In 1705, young Johann Sebastian Bach set out to walk the 400km to hear Dieterich Buxtehude play the organ. Since the latter was 68 at the time there was no guarantee he would be there when JS arrived. This week in Bach Walks (19-22 December, 7pm, Radio 3) Horatio Clare is retracing his steps on that journey with reflections on the scenery he passes and the music that might have been going through the 20-year-old Bach’s head.

If you haven’t already sampled the rich archive of The Kitchen Sisters Present then this is the ideal time of year to do so. You could start with an old one such as What Is It About Men and Meat and Midnight and a Pit? or the most recent Chicken Pills, which concerns the hormones some Jamaican women took to plump up their thighs. American storytelling audio at its best.

The podcast most likely to encourage you to fully appreciate your food is the episode of BBC World Service’s The Food Chain in which Antonio Carluccio talks to Emily Thomas about his life in five dishes. He cooks the last one for her and shows her how to eat pasta without a spoon. He reminisces twinklingly about food he has eaten and women he has cooked for. Five days after the interview, he died. Enjoy every sandwich.