CONTORTED PASTA

There has been so much good radio on, I have been too busy listening to it to get this list out in a timely fashion. Therefore some of these shows are expiring fairly quickly, and if you want to listen you should get a move on. For assistance in that, I am providing the expiration date for the first available episode, which I hope may be helpful.

FICTIONAL

Fatherland - This dramatisation of Robert Harris' book knocked my socks off when I first heard it 15 years ago, and the more I listen to it the more I am convinced it is the finest radio play ever made. Alternate history, Nazis won the war, hardbitten detective, pesky lady journalist – practically every noir trope, but it goes places. Oh, it goes places. It doesn't get repeated nearly as much as it used to, so don't miss this opportunity. (7 Sep)
A Study in Scarlet - Bert Coules' radio adaptations of the entire Sherlock Holmes canon (and some extras) are one of the best things ever to happen to radio drama, and 4 Extra has happily repeated the longer ones after a long absence. I have linked to the first episode of A Study in Scarlet but once you launch the player it should take you through The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Valley of Fear as well. (2 Sep)
The 39 Steps - I think I heard this one ages ago, and if memory serves it preserves some rather uncomfortable antisemitism from the book (which I assume the West End play does not) but it is a rollicking good jape otherwise. Plus, Tom Baker! (19 Sep)
Evil Under the Sun - I haven't heard this one yet, but the others in this series of Poirot adaptations have been very good so I assume this is as well. I don't like Christie's milieu as much as Doyle's – what can I say, I'm stuck in 1910 – but that's nothing against the production team here who really know how to put a radio play together. (20 Sep)
Only You Can Save Mankind - The aliens a pre-teen boy is fighting in his video game suddenly surrender, and demand safe conduct out of the war zone as per the Geneva Convention. Terry Pratchett takes the twist of Ender's Game and uses it as a starting place, exploring important ideas about humanity in the process. As a radio production this one leaves something to be desired, but it's still worth listening, especially if you haven't read the book. (18 Sep)
Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Unlike the book, which reads like 'everything we know about geology in 1864 held together with gossamer threads of plot', this adaptation focuses more on the adventure, and does a good job of subterranean atmosphere. (12 Sep)


FACTUAL

The Mark Steel Lecture - Always interesting and engagingly presented, the episode I've linked to is about Oliver Cromwell but everything else Steel talks about is worth a listen too. (1 Sep)
All The Planet's Wonders - A refreshingly joyful exploration of, in this case, astronomy, but the whole series will lift your spirits with wonder and curiosity. (3 Sep)
Radiolab - This series is a huge hit in podcast land, but I find it overproduced to the point of distraction so I've never really got into it. However, live shows cannot be edited to Kingdom Come, and I enjoyed this one – mainly about what killed the dinosaurs – hugely. (8 Sep)
Meet David Sedaris - It took me a while to come around to Mr Sedaris but I know lots of people like him a lot, so if you are one of those people, or wonder if you might be, here is your heads-up that his series of essay readings is back on Radio 4. (27 Aug)
How Perkin Brought Purple to the People - I haven't listened to this programme yet, but I know this story from James Burke, and it's a good one! There is no natural dye that gives you magenta, so a huge range of colours was unavailable to fashion, until someone created one from a fossil fuel byproduct. (indefinite)
The Infinite Monkey Cage - Radio 4's classic irreverent science show is back, this time discussing one of Dreamy Professor Brian Cox's favourite subjects: black holes. Recorded with an online audience! (indefinite)
You're Dead To Me - This series of history podcasts got at least ten pages of my book done. The host is the head geek behind Horrible Histories, then every episode he brings in a different expert and a comedian to discuss a historical subject for just under an hour. I'm pretty sure I've linked to it before, but it's started updating again. (indefinite)
Intrigue: The Ratline - Loving family man Otto Wachter died mysteriously in Rome a few years after the end of WWII. Could this have anything to do with what he got up to when a high ranking officer in the SS? If you enjoyed Fatherland you may find this a good chaser; its incredible twists and turns take you for quite a ride. (indefinite)

FUNNY

That Mitchell and Webb Sound - After taking their show to roaring success on TV, David Mitchell and Robert Webb returned to radio for one last go in 2013. They have lost none of their genius. (31 Aug)
Cabin Pressure - R4 has apparently finished its rerun of the best radio sitcom ever with Series 2 – I can only assume they're saving the rest for when the country needs a laugh again this winter. If you've missed it up till now, you can still listen to the last four episodes. (23 Aug)
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme - More genius sketch comedy! Honestly the name should be enough to get you to listen, but if you need further convincing, well, there just isn't a dud sketch in the whole show, and it's up to, what, eight series now? (3 Sep)
Old Harry's Game - The sitcom set in Hell really hits its stride in Series 2, when the overcrowding situation in Hell forces Satan to try to make humanity a little less sinful. (indefinite?)
Listen Against - This started as a topical comedy, where the week's programming on Radio 4 got chopped and boiled into an absurd gumbo, but it's funny enough that it keeps getting rerun as a comedy in its own right. Possibly the most self-referential thing R4 has ever made. (29 Aug)
Agendum - In a similar vein of spoofing the news, this one cocks a snook at in-depth investigative reporting and punditry. (7 Sep)
Radio Active - Dipping back into the deeper archives for this one, another sort of mock news programme from the 1980s, with roving reporters and funny names and running gags ... It should be tired by now but it still makes me laugh. (2 Sep)
The Wildebeest Years - Never before have so many puns been crammed into 28 minutes. (28 Aug)
Talking and Not Talking - A rare female-fronted silly sketch comedy; one of the best for recurring characters, including Carol who is Fine and the magnificent China Lion Lady. (1 Sep)
The Horne Section - I suppose it's a variety show, but I think of it as 'a children's show for grownups,' with skits, songs, and a generally uplifting gentle whimsy that I think we all need right now. (4 Sep)
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - The antidote to panel games which has now become the model for panel games. They're rerunning some classic episodes so fill yer boots with such immortal rounds as One Song To The Tune Of Another and Sound Charades. (2 Sep)
Reincarnathan - R4's comedy output has not been stellar of late; this sitcom about a failed human trying to make good through a series of animal reincarnations is not genius, but is the best new thing I've heard in a while. (29 Aug)
King Cutler - Some people will listen to Ivor Cutler and think 'Is this a joke?' Others will listen and think 'Is this a joke?' but not be able to stop listening and, perhaps, in the right mood, double over with laughter. Which are you? (20 Sep)
Paul Sinha's General Knowledge - The quizmaster comes back with his arms full of facts, which he effortlessly strings together in front of our very ears. (18 Sep)

Well, why not make it a thing this series.

I'm going to try to be short, because I have to get back to work. (Hah! Short.)

( Immediate Impressions of the Just-Aired Episode of Sherlock, Series 4 )

Back to francophone radio for me now; have fun out there, fandom.

Like the whole rest of the world, I watched the Sherlock Christmas/New Year's special ...

I definitely enjoyed it, despite having problems with it. It's so rare I can kick back and enjoy something fun, I'm not going to let a few misgivings get to me if the rest of it has me in its palm. One of those misgivings regards where they're going with Sherlock's character – part of the appeal of the show was how faithful they stayed to the original despite updating the setting, and in this episode they've given themselves an exit door from that fidelity. I thought it was a very important and perspicacious distinction in his character that the drugs were a response to boredom, but Moffat & Gatiss seem to have their own direction on this. However, I must say I am becoming more and more a fan of ambiguity in story: The Lady or the Tiger? annoyed me to high heaven when I read it in Grade 9, but I find I don't really care whether Sherlock Holmes is a Victorian dreaming of the Future or a Modern dreaming of the Past, so long as it's interesting and handled well. Those qualities appear in increasingly short supply, so it seems a pity to waste them.

Anyway. It should be no surprise I have identified rather strongly with Sherlock from the beginning; while he's straying out of bounds a bit as a character, the whole 'drugs' thing hasn't changed that. Goodness knows I'm a junkie of the worst sort, albeit not on psychoactive chemicals ...





I'd never dream of taking all of those in one go, though; I wouldn't sleep for a week ...

My sister and I had a Sherlock Exchange today: I brought the BBC series and (in a roundabout way) she provided the Guy Ritchie film. So: I have now SEEN IT. (Yes, more than a year late, hush.) Because more than a few people have asked my opinion on it, I will share.

MY THOUGHTS, IN DESCENDING ORDER:

OMG Production design haaaaaagh.*

It was a great deal of fun

It wasn't Sherlock Holmes.

Nevertheless, I suspect Arthur Conan Doyle would have enjoyed it immensely.

I'm pretty sure electricity doesn't work that way.

Robert Downey Jr's performance really reminded me of someone, in something I've seen recently, but I don't know. Colin Farrell maybe? But in what?

It was more amusing than I had imagined to watch Hypothetical Birdie cavort about the screen

If one goes into great depth detailing someone's very particular eye colour, it would generally be considered wise to invest in some coloured contacts for the actor playing the character whose eyes are being described, especially if you cut to a medium closeup of him immediately following the description.

Surely one could have stopped the awesome-looking steampunk device simply by interrupting the flow of electricity between those two balls at the top, or taking a hammer (or other large heavy implement) to the glass gas-generating canisters. Is that Occam's Razor?

Luckily it is still possible to have the CD as my Herbert West soundtrack.

*that's a Homer Simpson drooling onomatopoeia in case you couldn't tell

I figured this out this afternoon and thought I might as well share, because life is just more fun when you have Sherlock's Adventure Time theme stuck in your head.



Proof my musical education has not gone entirely to waste – with suggested fingerings for violinists! I apologize for errors in notation; theory was never my strong suit. Too much like math. Circle of fifths, WTF, just gimme some music to play. (You may have noticed I am not a professional musician.)

HOW DO I LOVE THE NEW SHERLOCK, LET ME COUNT THE WAYS

OH WAIT I CAN'T BECAUSE THERE ARE TOO MANY



One of them is vindication, though. HAH!

Sherlock Holmes: His Last Bow - One might expect such a long-running and popular series to end with a bang but I rather like this quiet, evocative piece. It does an amazing job of setting the period in sound, too.

So Wrong It's Right - I've been listening to Radio 4 for coming on to five years now and I think this is the first panel show that has ever dissolved into outright yelling. It's good, though! Just don't bring up Twitter. Plus Josie Long! Have I mentioned I love Josie Long?

Running Away: Hugh Dennis - Back to the Sussex downs but in the present. Another lovely sound picture, and a welcome bit of peace and quiet after the anarchy of So Wrong It's Right. This one made me all warm and happy when I heard it this morning. Plus Hugh Dennis!

Unfortunately I seem to have completely missed the second part of God on my Mind. Sorry ...
EDIT: Thanks to isaluna you can listen to Part 2, here. It only works till Monday, though, so listen up! This one's on neurology.

My memory failed me; I picked the wrong P word.

The Lighthouse, the Politician, and the Trained Cormorant – Part 2!

... though they've retitled it anyway, possibly out of respect for the mystique of the reference. A cracking good drama.