大象传媒

鈥淟et's Get Lost..." croons Chet Baker, harmonising with his own trumpet.

It's a 1950s recording made at the high-water mark of jazz - that improvised and meandering art form.

Taking his instruction from Baker, Stephen Smith sets out.

However, modern technology can almost guarantee that we need never be lost again - in cities, encyclopaedias or record shops. Many of today's teenagers have never been lost, either literally or metaphorically. We've been given Wi-Fi-enabled omnipotence. But, Stephen asks:

"Where's the fun in that?"

So, Stephen turns off his GPS and explores the joys of mooching about, taking a wrong turning - only to stumble upon some unexpected delight.

He has some rollicking encounters along the way.

Stephen meets a man in Hampton Court Maze who claims he was clean-shaven when he went in.

He goes on a Sunday drive - remember them? - with design guru Stephen Bayley - where they reminisce about "the Proustian pleasure of a packet of cheese and onion...on an absolutely futile drive".

Via Virginia's Woolf's great essay on getting lost, "Street Haunting", he goes to see Graham Gouldman of 10cc.

The idea of getting lost strikes a chord with Gouldman. There's lots of messing around on guitars. Gouldman talks about getting lost in the record shops of his youth, relives the writing of their greatest hit "I'm Not in Love", and in the end pens a new song to lostness. Stephen asks Graham what he might do with it.

A week later, a fully recorded version arrives in Stephen's inbox - and he hits play....

Producer: Adele Armstrong

First broadcast on 大象传媒 Radio 4 in October 2015.

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