Ruby Wax

[CRaise Finton Kirk]

nurseduckett said:

Craise said:

One of the problems with R4 is that presenters never get sacked and once they’ve been there for about 20 years regard themselves as icons which is total rubbish. There are quite a few people at R4 who should have moved on years ago. I can even recall the days when they used to bin naff programmes.

Oh I agree I so agree agreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

I never ever listen to that Libby Purves on Wednesdays. They should have axed the programme years ago. She just will not SHUT UP! I run, RUN to slam the radio off when Vegtalk comes on ditto the adverts for it. And why oh why is The Archers still on, pray? You can go an entire year without listening to it and still catch up within minutes if it strays across your horizon, accidentally, later.

Don't get me started. Oh. You just did

Agree with all this.


There was an amusing piece in The Independent quite recently where readers had to submit their five most hated words.

Hee-hee someone wrote in: ‘Now Midweek with Libby Purves.’

Loudon Wainwright 111 was on a month or so ago and it was abundantly clear that she didn’t know the slightest thing about him. Loudon sounded as though he just wanted to get out of the studio.

Oh dear there must be some very very strange people living at R4 house.

[Tiger Lil']

I tuned in a little late and thought it was Joan Rivers for a minute or two. A good DID.

I enjoyed Betsy Blair the other week too. If it was a repeat it was not one I'd heard before.

[Captain Nudnick]

Nothing is as bad as Moneybox.

[Craise FintonKirk]

captainnudnick said:

Nothing is as bad as Moneybox.

I'd find difficulty arguing with that - and they have the nerve to repeat it. Paul Lewis's voice is soooooo annoying.

[Benbow]

captainnudnick said:

Nothing is as bad as Moneybox.

How about You and Yours?

Oh yes, and 'Any Answers' (or any other programme which invites listeners to phone in).

[Nurse Duckett]

benbow said:

captainnudnick said:

Nothing is as bad as Moneybox.

How about You and Yours?

Oh yes, and 'Any Answers' (or any other programme which invites listeners to phone in).

I've got one. It's on Saturday mornings and used to be hosted by the late John Peel. Some of the contributions strip the enamel off your teeth.

[Crusoe]

benbow said:

How about You and Yours?

Oh yes, and 'Any Answers' (or any other programme which invites listeners to phone in).

Oh, I quite like “Any Answers”: it’s remarkable how entertaining mad people can be, on occasions. Of course it would be different if we were expected to take it seriously.

[Nurse Duckett]

webb said:

Oh, I quite like “Any Answers”: it’s remarkable how entertaining mad people can be, on occasions. Of course it would be different if we were expected to take it seriously.

nurseduckett said:

I've got one. It's on Saturday mornings and used to be hosted by the late John Peel. Some of the contributions strip the enamel off your teeth.

Like the mad people on that one? I sometimes think the producers let them go on and on and on about bus-stops and ear-wigs, just so that we can all "have a good laugh" at how barking mad they are.

[Luxury Yacht]

I've come back to this thread rather late and have oodles of things to say to everyone.

I listened to Ms Wax this morning, and found it one of the most interesting DIDs in recent history - though that is not saying much.

I enjoyed hearing her choices of music, because of her reasons for choosing each piece. Not just because she liked them, but because they represented significant events or periods in her life, generally with a dollop of humour thrown in, and that made me listen to the music with a new ear. I particularly enjoyed her description of "Night on a Bare Mountain" as reminding her of her mother doing housework, and the finale to Beethoven's 8th symphony as the "muzak" playing in her head when she was suffering from depression.

I don't think 3/4 hour was long enough. There were several subjects I wish she would have talked for longer about, if she hadn't been cut off in mid-flow. Especially, I would have liked to know how on earth she managed to get into the RSC when she'd failed her drama school auditions considering that, by her own admission, she couldn't act.

Nor did I think that she was playing the oppressive Jewish family card to any great extent. Philip Larkin pointed out that we all suffer from the same thing, and it sounded to me as though Ruby's mother didn't want to press the Jewish aspect too much. But hey, what do I know?

Craise Finton Kirk wrote:

Also struggled through Miss Mapp last week – surprise, surprise, dramatised by Ned Sherrin! And R4 claims that it doesn’t have an Oxbridge or southern bias!

Hmm, yes, it does seem as though they feel obliged to provide him with employment of some sort. I do like the books, and I loved the TV adaptation, and agree with Crusoe that sending up the characters involved is intended.

Was rather cross that "Diva" was pronounced as "Deever" when it's short for "Godiva". Tsk. %20???

Thought Enoch Powell was most interesting when he appeared on DID. He was also a great guest on Any Questions.

Agreed. A deep thinker.

Crusoe wrote:

Actually, I say I missed Ms Wax but I’m not sure if I did, I can’t help feeling that I’ve heard her on DID before. Similarly Alexander McCall-Smith and Betsy Blair: I wonder if we’re in the summer repeats season? This is a question that probably needs one Suzi, two places, to be answered authoritatively.

I've certainly heard Alexander McCall-Smith interviewed at length somewhere previously: not sure whether it was on DID, though. Possibly Open Book, or maybe a programme on the World Service.

I don't think it's likely that this programme will be axed; but it's certainly time for a new interviewer.