Radio recommendations

[mattc]

Gave up on the Bill Bailey sit-com (man with imaginary childhood friend) after 2Eps - unoriginal, unfunny, occasionally irritating.
Shame - still love you Bill!

[citoyen]

YES! YES! YES!

https://twitter.com/JohnFinnemore/status/1662395725437718530?s=20

Shame it's not a whole series but better than nothing. And much as I loved S9, I'm glad he's returning to the previous format.

[Tim Hall]

Something very different in the six thirty comedy slot: Robin Ince's Reality Tunnel. It started last week but I wasn't aware until I caught most of episode two this evening. Robin Ince empties his brain at us. All four episodes on BBC Sounds.

[citoyen]

I shall check that out. I like Robin Ince.

I’ve recently discovered something on 4extra from a few years ago that passed me by at the time: Reluctant Persuaders - sitcom set in an advertising agency, with Nigel Havers hamming it up to the max.

A bit patchy but very very funny in places and a lot different to the usual radio sitcom fare.

There are some nice in jokes too - they get Havers to deliver some nice lines about illustrious British actors doing anything for money, and there’s one bit where one of the young idiots is singing his own name to the tune of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (which as I’m sure all know was the theme tune - with words by Chas & Dave - to The Happy Apple, in which Leslie Ash plays a secretary in an advertising agency).

All four series are on iplayer right now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reluctant_Persuaders

[Tim Hall]

Two programmes being delivered in 15 minute chunks on 4 Extra. Both of which have been broadcast before.

First up is "You Will Be Safe Here" by Damian Barr. 

Damian Barr's blistering debut novel, spanning 100 years of South Africa's dark past and present, from the 1901 Boer War to 2010.

Currently we're in Bloemenfontein concentration camp and it's narrated by Tracy Ann Obermann doing her Afrikaans accent, which I'm sure is fine. Trouble is it's not very far from the one she uses in "Getting Nowhere Fast" where she plays a South African waitress who recounts her sexual antics of the night before each morning (Last night I met this real hottie. I was like nice bum. He was like bitchin'. Then I had a complete cadenza. So I snogged him all night).

I'm having trouble getting that out of my mind while we hear tales of the harrowing conditions in the concentration camp.

Second is "Light Years," part of The Cazalets by  Elizabeth Jane Howard. Tales of infidelity in the run up to the second world war. Narrated by Penelope Wilton.

[Mr Larrington]

Why did no-one tell me that S27 of The Infinite Monkey Cage started MOAR than a month ago   Slackers, the lot of you!

On the plus side, I shall have the dulcet tones of Messrs Cox & Ince to soothe my ears on the highways and byways of USAnia, as is tradition

[Tim Hall]

Gideon Coe is depping for Cerys Matthews in the 6 Music Sunday morning slot for the next few weeks. Hurrah.

[Tim Hall]

Stumbled across a production of The Midwich Cuckoos that I'd not heard before, on 4 Extra last night. First aired in 2003 in two 60 minute episodes, it's got Bill Nighy not, for once, playing an ageing actor. Clive Merrison is also in it.

I'll keep an ear out for episode two.