Posts tagged bbc
Niti pro Accuritas in Omnia
Talking It Over (or, Exactly Not) and Love, Etc. (Heavy On The Etc.) are listenable on the Radio 4 iPlayer until Friday and Saturday, respectively.
I’m really not usually one for fraught domestic dramas about deeply flawed people being cruel to each other, but these are such brilliant productions, brilliantly written, directed, acted, and edited, I find I can’t stop listening, even when it’s really difficult to do so.
And because they don’t give you any advance notice on the iPlayer: Mature content! Adult themes and situations! Those easily upset by intense interpersonal conflict should perhaps listen to the Dawn Chorus instead!
62 Plays
BBC Radio 4
Coconuts from Ipanema
And now we are into I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, the antidote to panel games, which has been running so long it’s practically built up its own subculture and mythology. I won’t try to explain Samantha, or the Lionel Blair running gags, but I will tell you that one of the frequently recurring rounds is called One Song To The Tune Of Another. This is always explained to the audience by the host in as confusing a manner as possible, but does what it says on the tin.
I’ve already featured one song from this round, Bob the Builder to The Girl from Ipanema … This has the same tune but substitutes the lyrics of “I’ve Got A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts” instead.
Yes, fellow young(ish) people, it is an actual song, and was not invented for Zazu to sing in The Lion King. I was surprised, too, the first time I heard it.
22 Plays
BBC Radio 4
Heresy: Book Awards
Victoria Coren and the Heresy panel discuss the purpose and pitfalls of the convention of awarding prizes to books. Do book awards actually help lead us to books we’ll enjoy reading?
Wind in the Willows
Whether you’re suffering from too much winter in the UK, or stuck in the middle of a dry noisy concreted-over LA, or anywhere in between, follow the above link to the glorious Sunday picnic in the countryside that is the BBC’s latest adaptation of The Wind in the Willows. You have a day left to listen for free, but the show is available for pocket change on AudioGO, and then you can treasure it forever guilt-free.
http://www.audiogo.com/uk/the-wind-in-the-willows-kenneth-grahame-gid-100105
The show proper starts at 14:33 on the iPlayer link – there are interviews with the actors and stuff starting at the nine-minute mark but I think these are better listened to after you’ve heard the story.
111 Plays
BBC Radio 4
Pirates 4 Review
I still haven’t seen Pirates of the Carribbean: On Stranger Tides – this review is just so good on its own, I have no need.
This, plus the Ask A Ninja review of Pirates 2, are justification for these films’ existence; they are classics of the entertainingly bad review.
81 Plays
Richard Herring, Stewart Lee, and Peter Baynham
Peter Puppet
The hosts suggest a replacement for their culinary expert.
83 Plays
Peter Baynham
How to Pizza
Peter Baynham demonstrates how to achieve pizza, for the budget-conscious and resource-poor.
A few years ago he was nominated for an Oscar as part of the writing team on Borat.
I like to think about these two things at the same time.
164 Plays
Richard Herring and Stewart Lee
101 Men
The lads from the Fist of Fun bring some needed reality to a classic children’s story.
69 Plays
The Penny Dreadfuls
Caffeinated Cheese
Another advertisement for a highly desirable new product, from The Brothers Faversham.
119 Plays
The Penny Dreadfuls
Cats
The Brothers Faversham is a great show and full of delightful spoof Victoriana with occasional moments of poignancy … but the ‘advertisements’ were just hilarious.
I’ve long struggled with designing badger characters so I took this opportunity to do some study and sort that out. He needs much smaller feet and hands – I mean look at actual badgers, that’s just so caricatured already! – but it’s a start.
Also, guest appearance by Mr Toad … we’ll get to him later.
Have you ever heard (I think it’s called) “A Stuggy Pren”? A Stoggy Pren? It has kind of the same feel…so did Jarvis Cocker’s Sunday Service on Radio6. I haven’t heard either in ages, but I <3 them both!
122 Plays
Jake Oldershaw, Derek Nisbet
The Mayor of Lyon
Dr Pfeffer’s Lonely Hearts Club was… a distinctly odd radio show, but brilliant. In each of the four episodes the host took you, the listener, to visit the enigmatic Dr Pfeffer, who would share a few words and a song with you, and then set you on your way. It was immersive and transporting and strangely intimate, especially if you were listening on headphones while working alone late at night. I’d love to hear it again but it seems to be lost somewhere in the vast BBC archives; only this small artefact proves I didn’t dream the whole thing …
This is your last-minute notice that the BBC’s new Wind in the Willows is utterly delightful and totally worth listening to if you can possibly manage it before Saturday. If Tumblr would let me add a link I would, but instead I will give you the URL so you can copy-paste:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qkwgr/Saturday_Drama_The_Wind_in_the_Willows/
Redwall + Edwardians = lots more drawings from this eventually, I’m sure.
111 Plays
John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman
Nemesis
There’s no denying the unifying power of a common enemy, but religious extremism in foreign parts is so hard to control … so the Department has engineered a replacement.
What is it with the Brits and lepidopteraphobia?
