We have a TV thread but not, as far as I am aware, a general one for radio. So here you go...... and pretty unique, IMHO!
And I'll kick it off with a recommendation for the new series of Meet David Sedaris, starting on Radio 4 at 6.30pm tomorrow.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003rk8
I know this will be good because I went to one of the recordings. He's very entertaining.
"Pretty unique"? <twitch>. But yes, he's well worth a listen.We have a TV thread but not, as far as I am aware, a general one for radio. So here you go...... and pretty unique, IMHO!
And I'll kick it off with a recommendation for the new series of Meet David Sedaris, starting on Radio 4 at 6.30pm tomorrow.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003rk8
I know this will be good because I went to one of the recordings. He's very entertaining.
Massive fan here.
I started reading one of his books last week. I was pessimistic, as his stage delivery is so brilliant - would the stories work on the quiet page? The answer so far is yes.
[I think it's called Lets Talk to Owls about Dyslexia - or something equally surreal.]
There's a new series of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme on the way.
I started reading one of his books last week. I was pessimistic, as his stage delivery is so brilliant - would the stories work on the quiet page? The answer so far is yes.
"Pretty unique"? <twitch>.:D
Also luckily I've downloaded them all using get_iplayer. Did you catch Double Acts as well?There's a new series of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme on the way.
:thumbsup:
Consistently the funniest radio sketch show. Although I only discovered it after he'd already done about five series - though obviously I was already familiar with him through other stuff, eg Cabin Pressure. Luckily they're frequently repeated on 4 Extra.
There's a new series of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme on the way.
:thumbsup:
Consistently the funniest radio sketch show.
Did you catch Double Acts as well?
I can do stuff with dropbox if you want.Did you catch Double Acts as well?
No, that one passed me by. Will keep an ear out for it on 4 Extra.
I can do stuff with dropbox if you want.
Repeats start Friday 12th!I can do stuff with dropbox if you want.Did you catch Double Acts as well?
No, that one passed me by. Will keep an ear out for it on 4 Extra.
Been listening to Double Acts over the weekend (thanks, Tim). It's brilliant. Has a touch of Inside No.9 about it.No problems, glad you're enjoying them. I think English for Pony Lovers is my favourite from that series.
The one with Alison Steadman and Isy Suttie (Wysinnwyg) is my favourite so far - proper LOL hilarious.
I think English for Pony Lovers is my favourite from that series.
I've just finished listening to China Towns, a series of 11 plays based on the novels of Arnold Bennett. Historical drama set in the "five towns" (six in Real Life) which became Stoke on Trent. Go and grab them off BBC Sounds.
There's more Hardy (not Thomas) stuff coming up.
There's more Hardy (not Thomas) stuff coming up.
And last night at 1830, Sandy Toksvig presented show 1 of 2 of "When Jeremy Hardy Spoke to the Nation".
Saturday afternoon's drama was the third Teodor Szacki mystery to grace the airwaves. He's a Polish Prosecutor, doing the investigation stuff. Written by Zygmunt Milosewszki, translated by Antonia Lloyd Jones and produced by Mark Lawson off of the wireless. I enjoyed the previous outing, around a year ago, so will give this a go too.Part two is on this afternoon. Nearly finish so BBC sounds or get_iplayer are your friends.
We have a TV thread but not, as far as I am aware, a general one for radio. So here you go...... and pretty unique, IMHO!
And I'll kick it off with a recommendation for the new series of Meet David Sedaris, starting on Radio 4 at 6.30pm tomorrow.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003rk8
I know this will be good because I went to one of the recordings. He's very entertaining.
It helps when, in-your-head, you read it in the same voice and delivery as David.
Massive fan here.
I started reading one of his books last week. I was pessimistic, as his stage delivery is so brilliant - would the stories work on the quiet page? The answer so far is yes.
[I think it's called Lets Talk to Owls about Dyslexia - or something equally surreal.]
New series of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme starts tonight at 1830, R4.
Finally there's a series of Raffles on 4 Extra that I don't think I've head before, with Jeremy Clyde as AJ Raffles andOliver SterlingMichael Cochrane as Bunny Manders. In a fit of coincidence, Mikchael Cochrane popped up half an hour later in something called Terminal Journals, a comedy set in a Victorian publishers.
Ed Reardon's Week always makes me smile. Just checked and its in its 13th series!
Trivia time: EW Hornung, creator of Raffles, gentleman jewel thief, was the brother in law of Arthur Conan Doyle.QuoteFinally there's a series of Raffles on 4 Extra that I don't think I've head before, with Jeremy Clyde as AJ Raffles andOliver SterlingMichael Cochrane as Bunny Manders. In a fit of coincidence, Mikchael Cochrane popped up half an hour later in something called Terminal Journals, a comedy set in a Victorian publishers.
I started listening to that last night. Good, gentle fun. I thought that voice sounded familiar!
Trivia time: EW Hornung, creator of Raffles, gentleman jewel thief, was the brother in law of Arthur Conan Doyle.
Ed Reardon's Week always makes me smile. Just checked and its in its 13th series!Speaking of Ed Reardon's Week reminds me of this:
The story deals with the literary world that Gissing himself had experienced. Its title refers to the London street, Grub Street, which in the 18th century became synonymous with hack literature; by Gissing's time, Grub Street itself no longer existed, though hack-writing certainly did. Its two central characters are a sharply contrasted pair of writers: Edwin Reardon, a novelist of some talent but limited commercial prospects, and a shy, cerebral man; and Jasper Milvain, a young journalist, hard-working and capable of generosity, but cynical and only semi-scrupulous about writing and its purpose in the modern (i.e. late Victorian) world.
That's from the Wikipedia article about George Gissing's "New Grub street", published 1891. There was a Radio 4 adaptation a couple of years ago, adapted by a certain Christopher Douglas and featuring, umm, Christopher Douglas as Edwin Reardon.
Meanwhile the 15 minute drama (1040 & 1945 R4) is the latest series of Gudrun. a "Viking epic of love revenge and faith", although as it's in Iceland shouldn't that be a "saga"?
Meanwhile the 15 minute drama (1040 & 1945 R4) is the latest series of Gudrun. a "Viking epic of love revenge and faith", although as it's in Iceland shouldn't that be a "saga"?
I don't know, but it does seem to be going on ... and on ... and on. Maybe it's just me, but it absolutely makes me want to pack my ears with snow so I don't have to hear Gudrun's (that's Guthrrrrrrrrun's) flat monotone, weak-Bjork-impersonating voice droning on.
FX: tap tap <is this thing on?>
Did you catch the episode where he was on Alderney? One of his recurring themes was lack of local services vs low taxation. There was some booing...FX: tap tap <is this thing on?>
Heh. I’m still following the thread, just haven’t had anything to contribute lately.
I saw that Brian Sewell thing in the listings and was intrigued but haven’t listened yet. Will give it a go.
BBC Sounds has the whole nine series of Mark Steel’s In Town available to listen to at the moment. Some of his material is a bit past its sell-by date, and the gags are basically the sane everywhere he goes, he just tweaks them a bit to suit the location. But I like it. It makes good bedtime listening - amusing but not too challenging. And Mark Steel himself is very personable - which is why he can get away with being so rude about everywhere he visits.
That’s probably a bit too half-hearted to count as a real recommendation.
Cycling content klaxon: Gideon Coe is doing his regular (ie annual) Tour de France themed special on his 6music evening show imminently. He did mention it the other night but I was only half listening so didn’t catch the date.
Did you catch the episode where he was on Alderney? One of his recurring themes was lack of local services vs low taxation. There was some booing...
Cycling content klaxon: Gideon Coe is doing his regular (ie annual) Tour de France themed special on his 6music evening show imminently. He did mention it the other night but I was only half listening so didn’t catch the date.
Three lives on three bicycles from three different eras.
1960s: Bill might win the Tour de France but his legs are begging him to stop.
1930s: Tom is out with his cycling club in Yorkshire, but is it his last ride as a single man?
2002: Susan wants to ride around the world but the men in her life are struggling to keep up. Then the wheels begin to turn.
Bill needs to channel his inner Jens.After a penc day at jbex, that made I larf out loud. Cheers M Le Maire.
I see that Radio 4 have The Inspector Chen novels running in the Sunday afternoon drama slot. Written by Qiu Xiaolong, they feature poetry loving Inspector Chen doing police type things in contemporary (ish) China. They're dramatised by John Harvey, who wrote Inspector Resnick, the Nottingham based jazz loving Polish detective.
Last week's episode was a new one, while this week's, Don't Cry, Tai Lake was previously broadcast last year.
I've got some more of those which I grabbed when they were broadcast last year. i can send you a link if you're interested.I see that Radio 4 have The Inspector Chen novels running in the Sunday afternoon drama slot. Written by Qiu Xiaolong, they feature poetry loving Inspector Chen doing police type things in contemporary (ish) China. They're dramatised by John Harvey, who wrote Inspector Resnick, the Nottingham based jazz loving Polish detective.
Last week's episode was a new one, while this week's, Don't Cry, Tai Lake was previously broadcast last year.
I'd never heard one before, and I enjoyed that.
Yes, please Tim. Thank you.Peter, I've sent you a PM
Somewhere on 4 Extra there's a series called Street and Lane. Written by Dave Sheasby and Ian McMillan (the bard of Barnsley) it's a sitcom of sorts about some jobbing builders/white van men. Sheasby and McMillan know their way around a script, which is beautifully delivered by the fantastically named Fine Time Fontayne (previously heard in Sheasby and McMillan's "The Blackburn Files") and Nick Lane.
The Skewer is on Radio 4 at the moment. From the depths of John Holmes' mind, it's a different review of the past week's news.Always good :thumbsup: I would never have guessed john Holmes would do something like this.
(Recalls Barbara Flynn in "A Very Peculiar Practice"; has moment)I have The Beiderbecke Affair nestling on my Raspberry Pi. Self Isolation holds no fears for me.
(Recalls Barbara Flynn in "A Very Peculiar Practice"; has moment)I have The Beiderbecke Affair nestling on my Raspberry Pi. Self Isolation holds no fears for me.
D.I.Discs today(on 7), a repeat of the excellent Alison Moyet.Get with beat, Daddio. 7 is 4 Extra these days. But, yes, an excellent edition of thd the programme. Good book choice too. I'm sure Roy Plomley wouldn't have allowed her choice of luxury ( a bath), as she gave a list of practical uses ( shelter etc) for it. Mind you,Lauren Laverne allowed a grand piano as Helena Morrissey's luxury on the Radio 4 version today. Standards are slipping.
One of the best music selections ever!
And I bet no-one guesses her book choice ...
It's on Preset 7 on all our DABs, so it shall ever be thus known ;D
(Is Radio 5 still going?)
Does anyone still listen to the now defunct Radio 2?
Does anyone still listen to the now defunct Radio 2?
To make myself feel better I found an episode of John Fennimore's Souvenir Programme.
To make myself feel better I found an episode of John Fennimore's Souvenir Programme.
They're currently repeating the series with the kirates sketch. You know... kirates. With keg legs and carrots on their shoulder. So funny. So clever.
I think my dad likes Round the Horne, but he's old enough to remember when it was new.
Someone <fx:tappity tap>ben pics has done an animation of kirates on You Tube. It maketh me laugh.
Here's a thing: Round The Horne, Beyond Our Ken and The Goon Show all feature musical breaks. The Goons had Ray Ellington and Max Geldray while Round The Horne used The Fraser Hayes Four doing close harmony singing that does my head in. Beyond Our Ken had Pat Lancaster who would have a cheesy intro from Kenneth Horne and some other close harmony group. Why? Was it some kind of contractual requirement.
The Navy Lark is good. I can listen to that one and it raises a chuckle. I can also see why it appealed at the time when millions of people had been in the forces, the idiot officers / canny non comms is a pretty universal military gag.Re The Navy Lark. Yes, there's an understanding bubbling along in the script that the audience know what it is/was like to serve in the armed forces (although I'm commenting from a position of ignorance, never having worn a uniform). National service was just about still going when it first aired. Have you heard "Our Brave Boys"? The funniest* radio sitcom set in an MOD office.. Written in 2001 by Christopher Lee and featuring, amongst others, Fiona Shaw who later pops up in Killing Eve and Fleabag. It's similar in tone, I think, to The Navy Lark, but not so slapstick.
The Goon show on the other hand I find has dated incredibly badly. You can see why it was so radical at the time compared to the way other comedy shows had been until then but I just find it wearing and annoying.
I still like the Goon Show, though I agree much of it has aged badly. Still very funny at times though. And tbh, quite a lot of Monty Python hasn't aged that well either.Have you tried Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel? A radio series originally written for Groucho and Chico, who played characters called Flywheel (an incompetent/bent lawyer) and Ravelli (his hapless sidekick) it got rejuvenated in 1990 by the BBC with Michael Roberts playing Groucho playing Flywheel and Franz Lazarus playing Chico playing Ravelli. As it's American or set in America and is by the BBC it has Lorelei King playing the female roles. Spike Milligan pops up from time to time too,
Going off tangentially from radio, but since we're talking about things that are dated, my son decided to break his Marx Brothers virginity the other day and watched Duck Soup. My god... the sound quality is terrible and it's all very "stagey", and there was even a warning before it started (it was recorded off TCM) that some of the views expressed were "of their time". And yet... it is still incredibly funny. The mirror scene is pantwettingly brilliant.
Have you tried Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel?
Obviously the gag is wasted on you lot. Doesn't matter. It's not funny anyway.
Obviously the gag is wasted on you lot. Doesn't matter. It's not funny anyway.
I got it citoyen
They haven't told Craig Charles it's closed, they just give him a toy microphone and let him sit in a studio (according to Radcliffe and Maconie that is).
I am looking forward to this, starting on Sunday. I missed the first few the first time around:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cb5k4 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cb5k4)
Here's a thing: Round The Horne, Beyond Our Ken and The Goon Show all feature musical breaks. The Goons had Ray Ellington and Max Geldray while Round The Horne used The Fraser Hayes Four doing close harmony singing that does my head in. Beyond Our Ken had Pat Lancaster who would have a cheesy intro from Kenneth Horne and some other close harmony group. Why? Was it some kind of contractual requirement.Something like that - I think it was a BBC rule. The music made it "general/light entertainment" or some such. You could have as much as you liked in the schedule. Parliament had huge control over Auntie Beeb in those days.
Down the Line 'Lockdown Special' with Gary Bellamy tonight R4, 11pm.
Today's Women's Hour on R4 today will include "The Beauty of Cycling During Lockdown"
W'sH starts at 10am. (Oh. Thats now) The article could be any time after that.
Saturday Afternoon Drama was a re running of Havana Blue, the first in The Havana Quartet detective series. Set in Cuba in 1989 and written by Leonard Padura, I enjoyed it the first time round. For Sam Dale spotters (or is thast just me?), he's in there, as is Michael Bertenshaw, who I first encountered in The Home Front.
They're repeating Cabin Pressure from s1ep1 :
still sheer class.
I did hear a couple and couldn't believe how so many talented actors could end up in something so dire.
We have a difference of opinion.He is dead to me.They're repeating Cabin Pressure from s1ep1 :
still sheer class.I did hear a couple and couldn't believe how so many talented actors could end up in something so dire.
Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics is good (radio 4) Funny and informative. You do need to have some interest in classical history though I suppose.Yes, she's good. I have to concentrate though. (No bad thing)
I see series two of Listen Against started a run last night on 4 Extra. Jon Holmes (his most recent thing was, I think, The Skewer) wrote it and Alice Arnold helps him present. It's respliced sound bite spoof new and a lot funnier than I've described it. (I think Cassette Boy gets a credit in one episoded or another)
Enjoying the current Charles Paris adaptation with Bill Nighy on R4 - as ever there's some rather nice insider jokes about acting and theatre (with added performance art this time round...)
An early adaptation hadEnjoying the current Charles Paris adaptation with Bill Nighy on R4 - as ever there's some rather nice insider jokes about acting and theatre (with added performance art this time round...)
I enjoyed that too, although I did get a slight feeling that it tries a wee bit too hard to be "quirky".
I reckon it would work well on screen too, whether TV or cinema. Hard to imagine anyone other than Bill Nighy in the role.
Francis Matthews also played Paul Temple on TV, which is... unsurprising.
World radio premiere of Albert Camus’s classic novel of a town hit by plague and how its residents respond to quarantine. Recorded during UK lockdown with actors self isolating.I'll give that a listen.
A special three hour listener curated playlist dedicated to Peter Green's work and his influence on a golden era of British Blues.Among the tracks played was Crossroads by Cream. Tom Robinson, a mainstay of Rock Against Racism BITD, said of Eric Clapton:
For me that was Eric Clapton's finest moment was with Cream, he did lots of the stuff later, which we won't go into...Heh.
Chris Boardman on desert island discs next week.I just came here to post precisely those words ^ ^ ^ :-)
Chris Boardman on desert island discs next week.I just came here to post precisely those words ^ ^ ^ :-)
I happened upon The Skewer on R4 recently. Didn't quite get it to start with but now love it.I listened to some of that last night. I like it. There was some kind of mash up that featured the shipping forecast:
You do have to listen though. You can't be doing anything else 'cos you miss the unannounced 'punchline'.I happened upon The Skewer on R4 recently. Didn't quite get it to start with but now love it.I listened to some of that last night. I like it. There was some kind of mash up that featured the shipping forecast:
"Boris Johnson Dogger"
A dramatisation of John Le Carre's first novel, A Call for The Dead was on Radio 4 yesterday and is available on BBC Sounds. Simon Russel Beale plays Smiley and the wonderful Kenneth Cranham is Mendel. Sam Dale (hurrah!) gets two parts.
New series of The Infinite Monkey Cage starts this arvo. I really ought to listen to last summer's offering first - a pleasure I normally reserve for the first day or two of my annual USAnian road trip. Which obv didn't happen in 2020 chiz.Thanks for the tip-off. It was a good one!
just caught up with "The Human Brain" show (July).New series of The Infinite Monkey Cage starts this arvo. I really ought to listen to last summer's offering first - a pleasure I normally reserve for the first day or two of my annual USAnian road trip. Which obv didn't happen in 2020 chiz.Thanks for the tip-off. It was a good one!
(Would it be harsh to say this was because Mr Ince got a lot less mike time? Maybe ... )