Radio Roundup

[tealin]

Headlining this week is the radio play which CHANGED MY LIFE (no exaggeration), which someone has kindly put up on some sort of file-sharing website. Apparently the audio isn't great but as the BBC seems loath to rerun it, this is the best you're gonna get, so download it while you still can.
—>The Worst Journey in the World<—
Adapted by Stef Penney, Directed by Kate McAll
BBC Radio 4's Classic Serial, September 2008
Other things ...

The Cage, by Bertram Chandler - Sci-fi short story. How do you prove an alien species is rational?
The Birth of Art and How They Done the Cave Paintings and How Michaelangelo Done the Sistine Chapel - The Arts and How They Was Done is one of those odd shows which, when it comes around again, I am excited for; when I listen to it it's not as good as I remember; and when it leaves I wish I had recorded it. It's back again! It's an odd mix of comic and poignant, nicely multilayered. My favourite is the Taj Mahal episode but that's not for a couple weeks yet.
The Door in the Wall - I link to this every time it comes around because it has a way of getting into one's head, and I can't not try to get it into others'.
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme - ... is just great, I may have mentioned.

Enjoy ...

Comments

[cryptolect]

When I listen to JFSP now I always think of you and wonder how heavily the sketches about The Archers and the Afternoon Play land with you, if at all?

[tealin]

As someone who has quite frequently caught 30 seconds of The Archers before I can reach my computer to switch the live feed off, and who has enjoyed years of Archers sketches on Dead Ringers, I like The Archers bits a lot. :) It also makes me feel vindicated for not liking the show; sometimes it feels like affection for The Archers is a prerequisite for being an official Radio 4 fan, and to know someone as Radio 4 as John Finnemore pokes fun at them is a relief.

I've only heard one or two Archers episodes all the way through (usually when I'm desperate not to miss Front Row) but I have heard dozens of Afternoon Plays. Sometimes they're really brilliant but a lot of the time they sound just like his sketch. The main impression the bit made on me, though, was how I wanted to play it for the writers at Disney, who are very fond of clunky, head-bashingly obvious expository dialogue. :)

[cryptolect]

I think it's much more of a Marmite love/hate thing, and even the lovers go through phases where they can't stand it in my experience. It definitely doesn't cut you off from official status!

There is a peculiar element though from growing up with it on all the time where in my head the characters are part of my extended family, like a set of cousins that I don't see very often. I was once on holiday abroad and a girl who had been working in a bar on the beach all summer made me sit down and tell her all the plots she'd missed. It was exactly like catching up with the latest gossip about one's relatives.

Having heard the Afternoon Play sketch I now *can't not hear it* every time I catch a bit of any of their dramas :)