I notice that fourble.co.uk seems to have lost a few of its shows recently, Alexi Sayle’s recent BBC radio programme, and Hitchhikers radio and book audio now gone. So grab them when they are good. Here’s my recommended gems:
The Day Today/ Iannucci offshoots (directed those and Veep and The Death of Stalin)
Blue Jam
Armando Iannucci’s Radio One Music Shows
The Chris Morris Music Show
On The Hour
Alan Partridge, Nomad
Duos
Fist of Fun
Lee & Herring’s Radio 1 Show
That Mitchell and Webb Sound
Richard Herring’s Objective
Armstrong & Miller
Lionel Nimrod’s Inexplicable World
Great ones
Cliche & Son Of Cliche (the radio prelude to Red Dwarf, with the original Rimmer sketches)
Limmy’s World of Glasgow (great Scottish comic of recent years)
The Mark Steel Solution, Revolutions and Lectures (superb comic who does very educational and funny historical lectures used by the Open University)
The Absolutely Radio Shows (I cannot recommend these enough, they became a TV series, Scottish and Welsh comedy)
Classics
Derek and Clive (Very sweary Peter cook and Dudley Moore)
The Goon Show
Hancock’s Half Hour
And if I recall correctly, Brian Perkins in his most grave newsreader tones (there was a thing for calm and urbane sounding announcer/newsreaders to turn up in comedy shows saying the most out-of-character things) : “It was me: I let the dogs out.” (That dates it rather).
Watching ‘Secrets of the Great British Castles’ or some such on Netflix.
The long and short:
As bad as we are today, we are little angels compared to the cruel, lying bloodthirsty ‘christians’ that that were the Lords and Knights and wannabe Kings of England, Scotland, Ireland, Crueland and Disemboweland.
Oh god yes. HH is brilliant (it’s still going AFAIK, but with a new cast) but the original core ensemble are excellent. Yonderland is likewise weird and wonderful and Muppety; Ghosts is a bit more sitcom-y but the same cast puts in strong performances nonetheless.
The Good Life*, yes. Used to watch that on PBS. Felicity Kendall was adorable. I especially remember a scene in which Tom, her husband, has sneakily done some freelance work for his old employer, to raise money to take her away on a vacation. They’re in the hotel restaurant, and when the waiter comes to take their order, they spontaneously pretend to be a boss and secretary sneaking away for an illicit weekend. “Yes, Mr. Douglas.” “Don’t use my name! I told you to only call me that upstairs in the bedroom!” “Sorry, Mr. Douglas!”
Over the weekend, I finally binge-watched Derry Girls. Really liked it, but I can’t quite buy into all the hype about it being utterly brilliant and innovative. It’s a teen comedy, with the protagonists getting into and out of trouble. There’s some exaggeration for comic effect – the snarky teacher, the Cloudcuckoolander mother of the Cloudcuckoolander daughter, some slightly far-fetched situations. But the writing is sharp and clever, the characters are nicely realized, and it’s nice to see a series about teenage girls (Catholic schoolgirls, no less) where they are not sexualized. Nor are they cynical snarkers or wise, grounded foils for the useless adults; they’re awkward, silly, not-as-mature-as-they-think-they-are teenagers. The showrunner and lead writer Lisa McGee describes them as “a gang of dicks”.
The cast is really solid, as well. Saoirse-Monica Jackson is almost Jim Carrey-esque in her ability to contort her face to convey expressions. She’s also not afraid to make herself look ugly or awkward, to tell the story.
*I remembered it as Good Neighbors, too, but Google tells me otherwise. It might have been renamed for broadcast on PBS, because I remember it with the American spelling of “neighbor”. Or maybe the Illuminati changed it when they changed the ending of Big, the spelling of Berenstein Bears, and faked Nelson Mandela’s death. (According to a worried dude over in MPSIMS, they’ve also moved South America and changed the Dogs Playing Poker painting. Odd priorities, the Illuminati seem to have.)
Yes, I actually remember the American series. An average married couple became household servants for a millionaire so they could live in luxury. It starred Larry Hagman, Donna Mills, and David Wayne, all of whom went on to Dallas and its spinoffs.
Pretty sure Motherland and Motherland: Fort Salem are unrelated shows. The Salem one seems to be all-American, not a renamed British show. I’m kinda amused by the British show Motherland being called Fort Salem though - man, you’d get a lot of confused viewers!
