Radio 4
Ken Campbell: The Great Caper
Last week, that most respected of British broadcasting institutions – Radio 4 – let its hair down, took a huge toke of Alamout Black and briefly turned into Radio Fnord: Robert Anton Wilson was on Book of the Week. Well, indirectly at least. It wasn’t a serialisation of a Wilson classic like the Illuminatus! trilogy, [...]
Naughtie Boy
This morning, I was getting ready for work while listening to Radio 4′s Today Programme. That’s just the way I roll. I skipped breakfast, which is probably just as well because this NSFW gem would have made me drop my toast: God bless you, James Naughtie – you made my day! I went to work [...]
“Does Humour Belong in Politics?”
Can you honestly imagine Lenny Bruce or Bill Hicks submitting to the discipline of the Whips? That was the Right Honourable MP for Ealing North, Stephen Pound, on this evening’s PM programme on Radio 4, once again justifying his status as one of the only contemporary British politicians I’d happily buy a pint for. Following [...]
The Secret World
Radio 4′s The Secret World is billed as a ‘comedy series that offers an insight into the private lives of the famous’, but don’t let that rather off-putting description put you off. Pitching its tent somewhere between Radio 4 classic Dead Ringers and Chris Morris’ sublime mongfest, Blue Jam, it’s anthracite dark funny stuff that [...]
Philip K. David Davis
Former shadow home secretary David Davis was just on Radio 4′s Today programme. He was discussing the role of police crowd control following the G20 demonstrations. He said that policing in this country is in danger of becoming increasingly ‘pre-crime‘ based. David Davis a PKD fan? Who’d a thought it…
Danse Macabre
“Sometime in mid-July 1518, in the city of Strasbourg, a woman stepped into the street and started to dance.” There was a fascinating piece on this morning’s Today Programme about a historical curiosity I’d never heard of before. This dancing woman was soon joined by others – men, women and children – and by the [...]
Alastair Campbell plays the songs of Jacques Brel
I often find that discovering that somebody shares one of your passions can efficiently neutralise any misgivings or antipathy you previously held towards them. So it was this morning, as I listened to Alastair Campbell’s programme on Radio 4 about the legendary chanson singer Jacques Brel: Former Labour strategist Alastair Campbell reveals his passion for [...]
When life turns into a Robert Anton Wilson novel
It was 8am and I was driving to work, listening to Radio 4′s Today Programme as John Humpreys served me a hearty breakfast of headlines. He told me that Republican Presidential candidate John McCain had promised to transform Washington and win back public trust. He said something about research indicating that some food prices had [...]
Latitude Diary: Day 2, Part 1 – Just a Bloody Minute
09.45 Emerge from sleeping bag. 10.20 Emerge from tent. 10.30 Make way from camping area to catch 12 .30pm recording of legendary Radio 4 panel game ‘Just a Minute‘. 10.45 Arrive at arena. Wake up. 10.50 Discover the Just a Minute queue is already about sixty-three miles long. The irony is not lost on me. [...]
Only Forward
“Yet more than all this, the really lethal thing about the whole language of business – is that it is so brainlessly upbeat. All the celebrating, the reaching out, the sharing, and the championing in fact grind one down. Several decades too late, it is as if business has caught up with the linguistic spirit [...]
Latitude
It’s early days yet, but the line-up for this year’s Latitude Festival is already shaping up rather nicely. As I’ve probably mentioned before, Latitude 2007 was one of my favourite festivals ever (and that includes Glastonbury ’97). A great location, a brilliant atmosphere, a nice mix of people, a relatively intimate scale, a welcome lack [...]
Expletive Deleted, Deletion Retreated
It’s a bit late in the day, but I can’t talk about The Pogues without at least mentioning the recent brouhaha over the re-release of their classic seasonal hit Fairytale of New York (AKA The Greatest Goddamn Christmas Song Ever). In case you missed it, BBC Radio 1 hit the headlines exactly a week before [...]
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