Radio

[Smells Like Kean Spirit]

Don't think there's a thread for radio - arguably still the best form of media out there. The BBC World Service was a lifeline in its day, for news, random information and sport. I'd still rather to listen to 5Live/Sportsworld going round the grounds of a Saturday afternoon than watch a "live" TV game. BBC 4E broadcasts some great stuff, especially its pre-Woke output, like this mid-sixties Arthur Conan Doyle offering, which translates well to the medium. It's just one of several classic seasons that were made. Great fun!

 

[davebirch]

I can only remember the 60's (left in 69)

Have a look at this, I remember a few.

Radio Rewind - BBC Radio 1 History - 1960s Listings

www.radiorewind.co.uk

And look at some of these..... memories like yesterday....

1960's BBC Comedy Archives - British Classic Comedy

www.britishclassiccomedy.co.uk

Favourite was Kenneth Horne, Round the Horne, full of double entendres.

These from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/what-to-listen-to/funniest-radio-comedies-time/


5. Round the Horne (Light Programme/Radio 2, 1965-68)

The crack team of Marty Feldman and Barry Took gave us this sublime and ever-so-slightly risqué sketch show which featured the versatile vocal talents of Kenneth Horne, Betty Marsden, Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams. It introduced the gay slang of polari to the nation (Bona!), while a generation of schoolboys tittered along to Rambling Syd Rumpo’s innuendo (“Green grows the grunge on my lady’s posset”).

4. The Goon Show (Home Service/Light Programme, 1951-1960)
Spike Milligan drove himself through a string of nervous breakdowns churning out Goon Show scripts, but his fevered imagination gave us one of the greatest influences on modern (and post-modern) comedy, at once daringly avant-garde and deeply silly – and impossible to explain. Monty Python looks tame by comparison.

2. Hancock’s Half Hour (Home Service, 1954-1959)
The sublime peregrinations of a tortured genius formed the backbone of radio comedy for Fifties listeners. Hancock broke new ground with its sitcom format, and also perfectly captured the humdrum existence of the post-war suburban man – rainy Sundays, interminable queues at the bus stop and the petty bureaucracy of local councils. There was also more than a dash of surreal humour, which is said to have influenced Harold Pinter.
1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Radio 4, 1978-80, 2004-05, 2018)
Before the books, film, TV series and novelty towel, Hitchhiker’s was a radio sitcom – and the best one ever made. It starred Simon Jones (soon to reprise the role in a new series) as Arthur Dent, the mild-mannered Englishman who wakes up to find the Earth is about to be destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass.
Writer Douglas Adams pushed the medium to its limits, conjuring otherworldly landscapes no Hollywood movie could ever match (with help from the pioneering BBC Radiophonic Workshop). It had a killer theme tune, to boot. Endlessly quotable, often profound, Hitchhiker's was a sui generis masterpiece. You’d have to be a Vogon not to love it.

Sorry guys, got a bit excited there, rediscovering all the fun I had listening to the radio back in the day.

My eyes are still watering at Syd Pumpo's line "Green grows the grunge on my lady’s posset”.

 

[Drog]

I never listened to HGTTG on the wireless dave but I loved the 70's TV series. I do keep meaning to find it and give it a go. Probably loved the TV series equally as much as I hated the big screen abomination. The only mercy is that poor old Douglas Adams shuffled off his mortal coil 4 years before the film was made.

 

[Alan]

I can only remember the 60's (left in 69)

Have a look at this, I remember a few.

Radio Rewind - BBC Radio 1 History - 1960s Listings

www.radiorewind.co.uk

And look at some of these..... memories like yesterday....

1960's BBC Comedy Archives - British Classic Comedy

www.britishclassiccomedy.co.uk

Favourite was Kenneth Horne, Round the Horne, full of double entendres.

These from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/what-to-listen-to/funniest-radio-comedies-time/


5. Round the Horne (Light Programme/Radio 2, 1965-68)

The crack team of Marty Feldman and Barry Took gave us this sublime and ever-so-slightly risqué sketch show which featured the versatile vocal talents of Kenneth Horne, Betty Marsden, Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams. It introduced the gay slang of polari to the nation (Bona!), while a generation of schoolboys tittered along to Rambling Syd Rumpo’s innuendo (“Green grows the grunge on my lady’s posset”).

4. The Goon Show (Home Service/Light Programme, 1951-1960)
Spike Milligan drove himself through a string of nervous breakdowns churning out Goon Show scripts, but his fevered imagination gave us one of the greatest influences on modern (and post-modern) comedy, at once daringly avant-garde and deeply silly – and impossible to explain. Monty Python looks tame by comparison.

2. Hancock’s Half Hour (Home Service, 1954-1959)
The sublime peregrinations of a tortured genius formed the backbone of radio comedy for Fifties listeners. Hancock broke new ground with its sitcom format, and also perfectly captured the humdrum existence of the post-war suburban man – rainy Sundays, interminable queues at the bus stop and the petty bureaucracy of local councils. There was also more than a dash of surreal humour, which is said to have influenced Harold Pinter.
1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Radio 4, 1978-80, 2004-05, 2018)
Before the books, film, TV series and novelty towel, Hitchhiker’s was a radio sitcom – and the best one ever made. It starred Simon Jones (soon to reprise the role in a new series) as Arthur Dent, the mild-mannered Englishman who wakes up to find the Earth is about to be destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass.
Writer Douglas Adams pushed the medium to its limits, conjuring otherworldly landscapes no Hollywood movie could ever match (with help from the pioneering BBC Radiophonic Workshop). It had a killer theme tune, to boot. Endlessly quotable, often profound, Hitchhiker's was a sui generis masterpiece. You’d have to be a Vogon not to love it.

Sorry guys, got a bit excited there, rediscovering all the fun I had listening to the radio back in the day.

My eyes are still watering at Syd Pumpo's line "Green grows the grunge on my lady’s posset”.

Life with the Lyons and Educating Archie were two of my favourites and going back further ITMA (It's that man again) and what about Wilfred Pickles (Give him the money Mable)

 

[Drog]

The Clitheroe Kid humoured me back then.

 

[CLW-BRFC]

I still listen to the Radio. I often have it on when i am doing my exercises. I listen for Sports news. Used to be for every Rovers away game. Now they can be watched. So i am not as reliant on it anymore. I like Radio Manchesters Rugby League coverage(again not needed much) and the phone-in. They do not really do it often because of Man City. Radio Lancs and Kerrang are my best 2.

 

[Old Darwen Blue]

I can honestly say that my radio gets more use than my television. Even that is only switched on for stuff I’ve recorded or on catch up.

 

[Alan]

When you can't go out at all both TV and radio are friends although the wife and I like to listen to music I have recorded on my phone through a Bose speaker in the conservatory when we can't sit in the garden.

 

[davebirch]

Spotify might be for you Al.

 

[Smells Like Kean Spirit]

Sorry guys, got a bit excited there, rediscovering all the fun I had listening to the radio back in the day.

Thanks for the tips Dave. I'm always on the look out for a new show. The thing is, radio is still as relevant and as entertaining as ever.

I can honestly say that my radio gets more use than my television. Even that is only switched on for stuff I’ve recorded or on catch up.

I find I have it on when I'm reading, cooking, or even just sitting listening to it. Much prefer a show with a good presenter, as I find spotify a bit impersonal and lacking a bit of spontaneity.

The best example of radio being ahead of TV I can offer was during the Arab 'Spring' in 2010. The TV channels had decamped to Benghazi in Libya. Whatshername on Sky TV was wondering around the main square chatting to relaxed locals after the UK and France had imposed a no fly zone against Gaddafi. Nothing to see here should have been the immediate response, but they dragged it on and on. At the same time, BBC WS radio was leading on another story, which was getting zero coverage on TV news. The news story spoke of a rumoured uprising against the Assad regime in the little known, and far more inaccessible, city of Hama in the north of Syria. As far as the TV companies were concerned: no cameras, no story! I never bothered with the 24-hour "news" channels after that.

 

[Smells Like Kean Spirit]

Haven't listened to this yet but looking forward to doing so. I read Hawksmoor when I was living in the East end of London. Cycling past Christ Church at Spitalfield every day sent a shiver down my spine. Many years later I read that virtually all of Hawksmoor was a product of Ackroyd's imagination! Either way, it's a fascinating tale:

Peter Ackroyd - Hawksmoor - Episode 1 - @BBCRadio4Extra http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jq33

 

[Smells Like Kean Spirit]

"A Cultural History of the Plague" was broadcast by the BBC, a few years ago, but it couldn't be more topical.
A fascinating listen, and leaves you wondering, how the West was so unprepared for Covid-19?

 

[Drog]

"A Cultural History of the Plague" was broadcast by the BBC, a few years ago, but it couldn't be more topical.
A fascinating listen, and leaves you wondering, how the West was so unprepared for Covid-19?

Apparently the scientists have been warning of the possibility of a pandemic for some years. I'd imagine our govt decided to ignore the advice and rely on crossing our fingers due to austerity measures following the 2008 financial crash.

 

[Smells Like Kean Spirit]

I only heard the phrase "social distancing" a few moths ago, but in 2014, they were discussing how folk were practising it during the medieval period as a defence against the plague.

 

[Drog]

Bubonic plague making Covid-19 appear like a case of hiccups.

 

[Barmitzvah Boy]

I tend to listen to BBC Sounds a lot, the only part of the BBC I involve myself with except for Radio Lancs.

The BBC Sounds podcast ‘30 Animals That Make Us Smarter’ is simply amazing. May I suggest you try it out for a listen.

30 Animals That Made Us Smarter - Shark and hospital surfaces - BBC Sounds

Millions of ridged scales make it difficult for bacteria to attach to the skin of a shark

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[davebirch]

Round The Horne - Complete : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

There's the full program list to stream for you.
If you have any PC tendencies, I'd suggest you don't listen.
I'm doing it episode by episode. Perhaps I should do it at mid day (or was it 1 o'clock) on Sundays.

 

[Old Darwen Blue]

Cheers pal I’ll download that on the computer and give it a listen.

 

[Drog]

Round The Horne - Complete : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

There's the full program list to stream for you.
If you have any PC tendencies, I'd suggest you don't listen.
I'm doing it episode by episode. Perhaps I should do it at mid day (or was it 1 o'clock) on Sundays.

Just to add folks, if you do have any of those .................. YOU'RE BANNED!

 

[rovers95]

Woe is me! I'm banned! Bye everyone. Sob.