Do you listen to Radio 4?

[beeboo]

Humphrys just sounded weary really. He got half a dig in comparing the propping up of failed banks to further education colleges but his heart didn't seem in it.

Is it his inate gentlemanliness that stops his savaging all these fools laid before him? His own politicianising to keep his job?

I think Humphreys is increasingly sounding a bit weary. Maybe it's the contrast with Evan Davis who always sounds incredibly chipper.

I think Evan Davis is often a better interviewer - tends to ask quietly intelligent questions which trip people up, whereas Humphreys more "exaggerated outrage" style is perhaps more easily deflected?

Or maybe cos Humphreys has been doing it for so long everyone is drilled throughly on how to handle his questioning.

 

[beeboo]

He got half a dig in comparing the propping up of failed banks to further education colleges but his heart didn't seem in it.

...and that line is just lazy, frankly, I'd expect better from Humphrys. He increasingly sounds like a charicature of himself

 

[5t3IIa]

I think Humphreys is increasingly sounding a bit weary. Maybe it's the contrast with Evan Davis who always sounds incredibly chipper.

I think Evan Davis is often a better interviewer - tends to ask quietly intelligent questions which trip people up, whereas Humphreys more "exaggerated outrage" style is perhaps more easily deflected?

Or maybe cos Humphreys has been doing it for so long everyone is drilled throughly on how to handle his questioning.

Yes, I think you're quite right about Evan - he is great and amazingly bright. I was, of course, unsure about how he'd go but I think he's fab now.

Chappy this morning hadn't been drilled thoroughly enough

 

[5t3IIa]

...and that line is just lazy, frankly, I'd expect better from Humphrys. He increasingly sounds like a charicature of himself

I did think that he was giving that chap some rope. He knows how savvy we listeners are and tbh if it was so ridiculous it was making us laugh then he could let him hang himself.

I bet there's something on PM about how many times Chappy cleared his throat

 

[susie12]

I love R4 but my boyfriend calls it the old ladies' channel

 

[beeboo]

I did think that he was giving that chap some rope. He knows how savvy we listeners are and tbh if it was so ridiculous it was making us laugh then he could let him hang himself.

I bet there's something on PM about how many times Chappy cleared his throat

I guess he could have taken chappy limb-from-limb but he just got a gentle mauling. Maybe he felt sorry for him

 

[Structaural]

No can't get it - except on streaming. Occasionally listen to old podcasts. But generally I prefer music.

 

[5t3IIa]

I guess he could have taken chappy limb-from-limb but he just got a gentle mauling. Maybe he felt sorry for him

Well, as I said he allowed him to hang himself. It was beneath JH to evisicerate Chappy when he was doing such a fine job of hara-kiri. Bigger fish to fry ain't he.

 

[derf]

I like radio 4.
I can still get it via the internet and I often download whatever I can of the podcasts to listen to at home.
I also pass on the MP3 files to local schools so they can hear native speakers.
Seems they find it useful.

 

[TheDave]

Thinking about it, Radio 4 is a fair bit less dumbed-down than it was - I grew up with a lot of middle-brow tosh - "My Music", "Petticoat Line", "Does The Team Think ?" etc ... but it is hardly ever a "must listen" these days - except for "The News Quiz" ... and once in a while I brave "The Moral Maze" for my fix of "Mad Mel" ...

I can't believe anyone actually listens to "The Clitheroe Kid" and "The Navy Lark" on BBC7

I've yet to work up the courage to listen to the Moral Maze because Mad Mel infuriates me enough just reading her articles and I know from watching her when she's on Question Time that she makes me want to stab things.

 

[soulman]

I love R4 but my boyfriend calls it the old ladies' channel

Good description!

 

[Scarlette]

The best thing for traffic jams is a local radio station which tells you where the jams are, so you can avoid them.

Yes but if you are already in one, see.

 

[vauxhallmum]

Don't like Melvin Bragg.
Methinks he is a pompous oaf!
Could be wrong though!!

No, you are 100% right.

He's the only thing I can't listen to on Radio 4 (apart from MoneyBox live).
I KNOW your really well educated Melvyn, now stop it

 

[littlebabyjesus]

No, you are 100% right.

He's the only thing I can't listen to on Radio 4 (apart from MoneyBox live).
I KNOW your really well educated Melvyn, now stop it

We're quite divided on Melvyn, it seems, but I do think MoneyBox Live and You and Yours may be points of unity. Is there anybody who likes these programmes?

 

[_angel_]

No. My parents have it on 24/7. Used to be woken up by Radio 4 at top decibels. My Dad seemed to think that having it on at the top volume didn't matter because it wasn't music.

Spoken voice radio annoys me more than music.

 

[vauxhallmum]

Actually, I also can't do Round Britain Quiz if thats still on.

Inpenetreble questions and really annoying voices.

It was like the 321 of the radio world.

 

[sojourner]

Yep, every day

Wake up to Today every day. Love loads about it, but detest the plays (99.9% of embarassingly bad tat) and practically kill the radio when the Archers comes on.

 

[madzone]

No, I'm still not old enough

 

[electrogirl]

I just heard a programme about whether things could be 'so bad they're good' or not.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I just heard a programme about whether things could be 'so bad they're good' or not.

So did I, and I am glad to say that the idea that things could be "so bad they're good" was thoroughly trounced as the nonsense that it is.

 

[gosub]

Yep - the unfunny half of The Mary Whitehouse Experience, plus Marcus Brigstocke shouting.

 

[vauxhallmum]

Ah ha! Gentle Green outed as John Holmes on the Now Show shocka

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Don't like Melvin Bragg.
Methinks he is a pompous oaf!
Could be wrong though!!

No, you are 100% right.

He's the only thing I can't listen to on Radio 4 (apart from MoneyBox live).
I KNOW your really well educated Melvyn, now stop it

...practically kill the radio when the Archers comes on.

Me too. I can't *bear* Melvyn Bragg's voice, I have a real aversion to it, have to turn the radio off on Thursday just after the 9am headlines. Can carry on listening after Today any other day, but not Thursdays. And likewise for the Archers, have to quickly kill the radio after the headlines but before the theme music starts. Even now just thinking about these two is making me grind my teeth.

One of the first things I like to do when I'm home in the UK is listen to Sailing By and the shipping forecast, and that's the moment I think *siiiiiiiiiiiigh* I'm home.

I love Today, Women's Hour, You & Yours, Any Questions, Any Answers, the Now Show, Just a Minute, or whatever the comedy is, Count Arthur Strong, The Ladies of Letters, WatO, I even used to enjoy listening to Gardener's Question Time even though I don't have a garden, oh, and I miss Marcel Berlins and the legal thingy that used to be on Friday afternoons/early evening-ish, used to listen to that in the bath with a glass of wine, while getting ready to go out.

When I wasn't working, I had a self-imposed rule that I mostly stuck to that I wouldn't watch daytime telly, I couldn't turn on the telly till the six o'clock news.

...I was a sucker for Home Truths but I haven't listened to it since John Peel died.

Me too, Home Truths was good.

But it's not Home Truths any more, it's something awful with Fi Glover, she sounds too forced and uncomfortable. John Peel was so familiar, so natural, totally irreplaceable.

 

[vauxhallmum]

No...tsk...
Melvyn Bragg = smug wanker
The Archers = essential daily entertainment.

That is all.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I was very encouraged to hear that Go For It is being cancelled.

 

[vauxhallmum]

God yes.

I'm sorry it was the last kids show on radio but it was shite of the first order.

Bog off Barney.

 

[Fictionist]

It is all pretty good except for the drama - which (other than a few notable exceptions) always seems to feature the same people - just with different names (the actors & characters!). In which case there is always Radio 3.

 

[oryx]

Me too. I can't *bear* Melvyn Bragg's voice, I have a real aversion to it, have to turn the radio off on Thursday just after the 9am headlines. Can carry on listening after Today any other day, but not Thursdays. And likewise for the Archers, have to quickly kill the radio after the headlines but before the theme music starts. Even now just thinking about these two is making me grind my teeth.

Agree with you on both Melvyn Bragg's voice (I can't even bear the way he says 'Hello' at the beginning of 'In Our Time'. ) and The Archers.

I love the Today programme, Woman's Hour and loads of random stuff on R4 - not keen on the dramas or programmes with elderly upper middle class twerps who think they're really clever and which seem to have the same canned laughter I remember from about 1969 when my parents listened to nothing but R4.....

 

[gnoriac]

Love the Today programme, In Our Time (agree on Melvyn Bragg's voice though) and the News Quiz.
Have to turn it off for the Archers and sometimes during Woman's Hour when they get on to yucky stuff like things related to childbirth.

Not a lot else worthwhile on the radio IMHO. Chill, 6Music and Kerrang are OK in small doses.

 

[stereotypical]

Nah. I work at a local radio station so the radio is the last thing I wanna listen to when im not in work.