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Post by Lawrence Jones on Jan 6, 2006 2:28:31 GMT -5
The Week in Westminster is often overlooked – presumably because listeners are getting their clothes ready for school the next day. However the item in respect of an MP's life is certainly one of the best radio features that I’ve heard in years. It certainly rectified a lot of the misconceptions in respect of supposed free loading MPs. However, as the late Brian Redhead would have said …..and yet and yet. I still remained unconvinced that people become MPs for philanthropic reasons! I watched Mr. Blair’s internet video over the Christmas break and regarded that as extremely disingenuous. Why didn’t he resign if the job was so difficult and sacrifice his career to care for his family?
Second recommendation relates to the interview with John and Margaret Hull on In Touch. I’ve listened to this programme all my life for very selfish reasons – I’m just grateful to be sighted. There’s always something interesting to think about in this programme, but it has been genuinely interesting listening to Mr and Mrs Hull speaking about their marriage. Most people marry for selfish reasons, which is probably why I enjoyed it. I must say, though, as a non-dancer, I do feel sorry for women who enjoy dancing and end up with a male who doesn’t.
The disappointment (for me) of the week was The Greenspan years which I’d looked forward to enormously. I always enjoy listening to Sir Howard on AQ, but I didn’t really enjoy him as a presenter. Being fair, the major problem was that it was far too short and it was also the kind of programme that needed the Mary Goldring treatment. R4 really does need to search out an exceptionally talented female economist who is a) a complete brian box b)sounds dead sexy on the radio c) makes the listener smile with her sense of humour d) has the great ability to describe and decode all aspects of male behaviour e)terrifies all males because she is so clever f) always uses a very good hair conditioner.
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Crusoe
Islander
It's...
Posts: 705
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Post by Crusoe on Jan 6, 2006 7:23:50 GMT -5
The Week in Westminster is often overlooked – presumably because listeners are getting their clothes ready for school the next day. Hee hee, maybe. Or perhaps it’s the prospect of politics that is off-putting. So many politicians’ speeches and interviews are so heavily scripted, nowadays, that potential listeners probably doubt that anything new or interesting will be said. I still remained unconvinced that people become MPs for philanthropic reasons! I watched Mr. Blair’s internet video over the Christmas break and regarded that as extremely disingenuous. Why didn’t he resign if the job was so difficult and sacrifice his career to care for his family? Quite right, Dr Jones. I’m sure that the politicians intend items like this to impress people with how hard-working they are but how they’re decent, ordinary human underneath. I recently read Matthew Parris’s autobiography and, although it is clear that he had political conviction and saw being an MP as a good thing to do, he was undoubtedly, a “career politician” working his way through the party after he had been disappointed by the constraints of working in the Civil Service. [Second recommendation relates to the interview with John and Margaret Hull on In Touch. I’ve listened to this programme all my life for very selfish reasons – I’m just grateful to be sighted I have to admit that I don’t often listen to “In Touch”. Sometimes I find it interesting but often I find it very limited in its interest being for blind and partially sighted people than about them. I remember hearing an edition of the programme, some time ago, when a contributor was suggesting that the fact that blind people could not read text messages on mobile telephones should be addressed. I would have thought that, since a ‘phone is primarily to allow people to speak to each other it has a built in solution to the problem. But I can understand that these sorts of issues may appear to be of more concern if you are directly affected. I missed the programmes with John and Margaret Hull. They sound very good: “human interest” always makes for a more interesting feature. [I R4 really does need to search out an exceptionally talented female economist who is a) a complete brian box b)sounds dead sexy on the radio c) makes the listener smile with her sense of humour d) has the great ability to describe and decode all aspects of male behaviour e)terrifies all males because she is so clever f) always uses a very good hair conditioner. Hee hee. That’s quite a shopping list – I think the BBC could struggle. |
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Post by waverly on Jan 6, 2006 11:18:38 GMT -5
The Week in Westminster is often overlooked.... R4 really does need to search out an exceptionally talented female economist who is a) a complete brian box b)sounds dead sexy on the radio c) makes the listener smile with her sense of humour d) has the great ability to describe and decode all aspects of male behaviour e)terrifies all males because she is so clever f) always uses a very good hair conditioner. i think the political/lobby correspondents always do an excellent job... the weekly programme is really enough to get all the salient information, without the fluff... +Fiorina.jpg) although not ideal in terms of all your requirements, Carly Fiorina, might fill the gap, while you look for perfection... |
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Post by rosalie on Jan 6, 2006 15:12:05 GMT -5
Yep, there was some good radio this week. I was very touched by the Scottish lady in It's My Story on yesterday whose refusal to give up on a little Iraqi girl she saw on tv who was terribly burned. I also liked last weeks The Longest Road with Peter Day.
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Post by Lawrence Jones on Jan 7, 2006 11:36:02 GMT -5
The Week in Westminster is often overlooked.... R4 really does need to search out an exceptionally talented female economist who is a) a complete brian box b)sounds dead sexy on the radio c) makes the listener smile with her sense of humour d) has the great ability to describe and decode all aspects of male behaviour e)terrifies all males because she is so clever f) always uses a very good hair conditioner. i think the political/lobby correspondents always do an excellent job... the weekly programme is really enough to get all the salient information, without the fluff... although not ideal in terms of all your requirements, Carly Fiorina, might fill the gap, while you look for perfection... Oh yes good suggestion, especially since she's clearly got a fondness for garages,  so is clearly very practical. She'd look really cool arriving at R4 driving a Humber Super Snipe. Better still if she has holes in both sleeves of her jacket or jumper. The Snipe has a huge boot, so could store at least 100 tubs of her favourite hair conditioner.  |
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Post by Lawrence Jones on Jan 7, 2006 16:52:58 GMT -5
Oooh, what a great radio evening tonight, just listened to the Phil Lynott story on R2, with some fab. commentary and archive material. R4's AH about the life of David Munrow was also very fine radio. Hope others heard and enjoyed them. Even enjoyed Saturday Review tonight!
Hope POTW includes extracts from these two programmes.
P.S. I meant to write The Westminster Hour (not The week In Westminster in the initial posting).
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Post by rosalie on Jan 17, 2006 13:21:57 GMT -5
This week Sleeping with the Enemy had quite the most upsetting stories of the week. Those poor women.
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Post by Lawrence Jones on Jan 18, 2006 1:50:19 GMT -5
This week Sleeping with the Enemy had quite the most upsetting stories of the week. Those poor women. This was a repeat wasn’t it? Tanya Data is one of my favourite radio producers. Confessions of a Crap Artist about the life of Philip K. Dick has been the real surprise radio programme of the week so far and I enjoyed it immensely. Not typical Monday R4 and very mysterious story. Felt glad at the end that I’ve never had the desire to take drugs! Give The Archive Hour a listen if you have access to Listen Again. Lovely piece during the intro. stages, with someone speaking about hearing Hank Williams song drifting out of an open window. Connie St. Louis series has been a bit of a disappointment. Gave up after about 10 mins. last night. Last week's broadcast was also a real turn-off for me. |
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Post by rosalie on Jan 19, 2006 12:39:49 GMT -5
This week Sleeping with the Enemy had quite the most upsetting stories of the week. Those poor women. This was a repeat wasn’t it? Tanya Data is one of my favourite radio producers. Confessions of a Crap Artist about the life of Philip K. Dick has been the real surprise radio programme of the week so far and I enjoyed it immensely. Not typical Monday R4 and very mysterious story. Felt glad at the end that I’ve never had the desire to take drugs! Give The Archive Hour a listen if you have access to Listen Again. Lovely piece during the intro. stages, with someone speaking about hearing Hank Williams song drifting out of an open window. Connie St. Louis series has been a bit of a disappointment. Gave up after about 10 mins. last night. Last week's broadcast was also a real turn-off for me. I hadn't heard that Sleeping with the Enemy before, but possibly a repeat though. I thought Confessions of a Crap Artist was great too - funny when those programmes come out of the blue. I was cooking , and found myself turning stuff down so I could listen to the end! Yes, the Connie St Louis black middle class thing was a bit of a disappointment. Found myself drifting out of the room. Hey , not my most favourite programme Open Country, but just nominated todays one about the Tamar Valley for PotW. The people on it were real earthy people, and their accents were wonderful. Have a listen, specially to Mr Dewitt and his dog. www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/opencountry.shtml |
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Post by Lawrence Jones on Jan 20, 2006 7:32:21 GMT -5
Yes, the Connie St Louis black middle class thing was a bit of a disappointment. Found myself drifting out of the room. Did you her Ms. St. Louis when she started up about being a board member and then Mr. Lammy boasting about his honorary doctorate? I couldn’t believe my ears. I thought Jeremy Clarkson was the only person to boast about possessing and honorary doctorate! Hee-hee nearly fell off my chair when I read this in view of your other thoughts about this programme. It’s always a joy to read a posting like this and I respect your open mind. You’re definitely the best kind of R4 listener. I finally gave up with the R4 message boards last year, so apologies for not responding to your POTW posting. |
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Post by Lawrence Jones on Jan 26, 2006 10:49:05 GMT -5
Heard this on Radio 3 at about 0540hrs. this morning as I drove into the car park at work and just froze. It was simply beautiful. Also froze in my car because I’d turned the engine off and waited until it finished!
5.45am
Monteverdi, Claudio (1567-1643): Magnificat (for 6 voices) - from Vespro della Beata Vergine
Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal
Christopher Jackson (conductor)
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Post by Lawrence Jones on Feb 3, 2006 16:07:45 GMT -5
Heard this on ‘More or Less’ whilst stuck in a traffic jam and thought it a very good piece of radio. I love Dr. Gavyn Davies’s serious voice and it matches his face perfectly. He quoted Benjamin Graham’s saying, likening the short-term behaviour of the stockmarket to a voting machine and its long-term behaviour to that of a weighing machine. I noticed how volatile the oil majors were on Thursday, so it did induce quite a bit of thought in respect of the forces behind these movements.
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Post by rosalie on Feb 5, 2006 8:11:41 GMT -5
The Archive Hour - Ship that broke the Cammell's back - about the history of Cammell Laird in Birkenhead. Very good. I feel a connection with this as I've been doing a little reseach into my relatives and found that for three generations back from my grandfather all the men were boilermakers. I remember my nan telling me how my grandad (who died when my dad was 13) used to queue up at the gates to get work.
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Post by Lawrence Jones on Feb 5, 2006 10:17:06 GMT -5
The Archive Hour - Ship that broke the Cammell's back - about the history of Cammell Laird in Birkenhead. Very good. I feel a connection with this as I've been doing a little reseach into my relatives and found that for three generations back from my grandfather all the men were boilermakers. I remember my nan telling me how my grandad (who died when my dad was 13) used to queue up at the gates to get work. Very good, indeed, Rosalie and I keep wondering why The Archive Hour Team has a soft spot for Liverpool (previous Cunard programme)! I hope Radio Merseyside staff alerted listeners to this broadcast. Interesting to read of your own connections. I carried out some of my own industrial training at the Unilever power station and worked with loads of former CL employees. Wasn't the induction process into the union fascinating? I was trying to adjust my hand and fingers as described in the programe, but couldn't get it right! Not too sure if it was a good idea to refer to the The Thetis disaster in view of its complexity. Full marks to the programme makers for describing the degaussing within a ship. I shivered when I thought of those poor guys in soaking wet clothes and aching limbs - with only a cold water tap for cleaning! My mind is blank in respect of the graveyard removal - just can't place it. Worked out that Sir Graham Day must now be 68 - can't believe that and wondered what he's doing these days. I wonder if Mr. Field was the best person to host the programme? |
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