At heart, I am analogue. I know podcasts are the thing, but they must be downloaded by the converted, not listened to by chance. I much preferred the sense of thrilling possibility when my arts series Dead Famous kicked off on BBC Radio 4, as hopefully it would connect with anyone who had the radio on – such as a friend in Brooklyn, New York, who wakes up to the radio at 11.30am GMT and thus was lulled into the day via my dulcet tones.
The idea behind the series is to tell the story of how some artists went from obscurity to posthumous global fame. It started on 5 March with Johannes Vermeer, who died bankrupt and whose work lay forgotten for 200 years. Via a sequence of serendipitous events, his paintings now command sell-out retrospectives, advertise cheese, car rentals and snacks, and even decorate ironing boards. I take the listener to the recent blockbuster exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, talk to a forgery expert who tells the scandalous tale of how pretend “Vermeers” made the news in the 1940s, and interview Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring. Chevalier has a corner in her study devoted to Girl merchandise – including “Girl with a Pearl Onion”-flavoured crisps.
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