At first this might put you off Elvis a little, but on the positive side, it gives you something to talk to David Trimble about, should you ever find yourself in circumstances where there's nothing for it but to exchange pleasantries with him.

Trimble, or "Lord Trimble" as the BBC would have it, was Matthew Parrish's guest for an extended edition of Great Lives on Radio 4 on Tuesday. Also in studio was Peter Guralnick, author of the definitive Elvis biography, who was there to supply the life story.

Guralnick described the young Elvis as "an autodidact, an ethnomusicologist by nature if not by training, " imbibing hillbilly, gospel and the blues.

The story goes that, in 1953, when Elvis was 18, he paid $4 to record a song for his mother in Sun Studios. By 1956, he was the king of rock and roll.

Guralnick outlined the brief success that followed before Elvis was called up for military service in 1958; then there were the Hollywood years, and the second surprising discovery that Elvis dabbled in method acting. Among the many fascinating audioclips was an interview with Elvis's friend and songwriter, Jerry Leiber, who described a plan for Elia Kazan to make a film of Nelson Algren's seminal novel, A Walk on the Wild Side, starring Elvis. Colonel Tom Parker wasn't interested, but visualising what the director of On the Waterfront might have done with Elvis Presley was worthy of another minute's silence. Refreshingly, the programme scrutinised Elvis's decline without resorting to sneering about cheeseburgers and impotence. They discussed his abnormal life, his unending adolescence, his bungled relationships, the wearying effect of the Vegas years.

"In some ways, David Trimble, this is a mess of a life, and yet you have chosen it as a Great Life, " observed Matthew Parrish.

"Because it still was, " said Trimble. "If you look at where popular culture was in 1955, and the way he changed it. . . There are many people in the popular music business who have only achieved a tenth . . . not even that . . . of what he achieved. . . My sense listening to the music is that he was dogged by a sense of failure. Yes, all human life does end in failure, in one sense or another. For Elvis this came a lot sooner than it might have done, and that is very sad."

Surprise surprise, Trimble seems all right.

There was reason to be taken aback, too, by last week's Sunday with Norris on Newstalk, in which David Norris interviewed the Anglican archbishop of Dublin, John Neill. He and Norris chatted chummily about the decline of the Church of "Arland", the dying tradition of evensong, and misconceptions about Protestants . . . "The thing I find irritating is that we are all lumped in together. I sometimes get the backwash [sic] for the antics of the likes of Ian Paisley, " Norris whinged.

For some reason, there was no discussion of Neill's controversial criticism of the use of Shannon by the US military. The controversy may have been silly, but Neill's views must offer an understanding of his character. Possibly the show was recorded before his Hot Press interview last month, but that's no excuse, as Neill made himself abundantly clear on this subject as long ago as 2004.