Speech Radio You Have Listened To Lately

[smittims]

I still listen to Woman's Hour every day, to keep my mind open to what other people think . But oh, how I wish Emma Barnet would return from maternity leave! She brought a much needed intellectual upgrade to the content of the programme.

[Serial_Apologist]

Absolutely wonderful programme earlier on today on Radio 4, just caught up on, in which a family with Jamaican origins disagrees - on remarkably amicable terms - over whether the mass migration to the UK started with Windrush was worth it for those who made the journey, or should they have stayed back and changed their own country for the better? This is the first in a four-part series.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001mlgx

[Rjw]

Just listened to

Sorry boys you failed the audition.

What happened when the Beatles went their separate ways in 1963.

A nice gentle listen! Radio 4 extra.

[Jazzrook]

Great Lives Radio 4, Tuesday 26 September, 2023:

"Ken Loach picks a 17th-century radical: the leader of the Diggers, Gerrard Winstanley."

Presenter Matthew Parris won't approve!

JR

[eighthobstruction]

Great Lives Radio 4, Tuesday 26 September, 2023:

"Ken Loach picks a 17th-century radical: the leader of the Diggers, Gerrard Winstanley."

Presenter Matthew Parris won't approve!

JR

....it will be worth listening to then....one sometimes thinks that Mathew P is getting alittle milder (allowing more of the wacky and wonderful into his tent)....but I think it is just that he has possibly done some compassion counselling....years of being an interviewing sponge must have an affect/effect....

[johncorrigan]

I enjoyed the play 'Piaf and Cocteau' which aired on Radio 4 Extra yesterday to mark the 60th anniversary of the deaths of these two giants of French culture. There were places, however, where Frances Barber sounded a bit like Barbara Windsor.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001r84m

[smittims]

The similarity of radio voices always intrigues me. I'm a regular 'Archers' listener and I've long been confused by the similar-sounding characters. Actors are used to 'putting on' an accent not their own (Freddie Jones was very good at this) and it's amusing to hear them occasionally lapse into their native tongue: Eric Portman letting slip a Yorkshire vowel, for instance. And the late Queen started off sounding terribly 'lah-di-dah' on air but later sounded more and more like Patricia Greene (Jill Archer).

[LMcD]

The Great Post Office Trial (BBC Radio 4) - Nick Wallis continues his excellent series about a truly shocking miscarriage of justice. Now available on BBC Sounds.

[smittims]

That was a cautionary tale I hope we have learnt from. It was assumed that 'the computer cannot make a mistake' so it must have been the humans. How tragically wrong.

I've enjoyed Jemma Redgrave's performances on several occasions so it was disappointing to hear her communicate so poorly on 'Woman's Hour'. She said 'erm, erm,' and 'I, I ,I, er, ' so often I nearly switched off. Clearly something was wrong. I felt they should have rescheduled the interview so that she spoke more clearly.

[Serial_Apologist]

That was a cautionary tale I hope we have learnt from. It was assumed that 'the computer cannot make a mistake' so it must have been the humans. How tragically wrong.

A timely observation in view of the CEO of the firm considered right to the fore in developing AI has just been fired by his BOD, allegedly for having expressed over-sanguine views about this new technology, though I gather we have yet to hear more.

[eighthobstruction]

....and it goes on still [ref post office]....last heard still quibbling about money... (is this version updated )

[LMcD]

....and it goes on still [ref post office]....last heard still quibbling about money... (is this version updated )

Yes - it combines interviews with the victims and extracts from the trial proceedings so far.

[smittims]

I've never seen references to The Archers here and I wonder if any forumites are Archers fans. I'd be interested to see reactions to the way the programme has changed over the years.

I've been listening to it on and off since childhood, my oldest memory being Grace Archer's famous death, and I recall some of the 1950s characters such as Tom Forrest and Walter Gabriel. It's an ambitious programme in that, although the episodes are only 12 minutes, so that only two or three current ongoing stories can be treated at a time,the potential cast is enormous, since they try to reflect something for all age groups. So some characters can disappear for months or even years, yet when they reappear the listener is exected to know not only who they are but all their history too.

I suppose all listeners, depending on their age and interests, have their favourite characters and those whose reappearance is unwelcome. I know some of them are tiresome to me, but I have to remember they are there for younger listeners, or listeners different from me in various ways.

I think the current version of the famous signature tune is an atrocity.

[LMcD]

I've never seen references to The Archers here and I wonder if any forumites are Archers fans. I'd be interested to see reactions to the way the programme has changed over the years.

I've been listening to it on and off since childhood, my oldest memory being Grace Archer's famous death, and I recall some of the 1950s characters such as Tom Forrest and Walter Gabriel. It's an ambitious programme in that, although the episodes are only 12 minutes, so that only two or three current ongoing stories can be treated at a time,the potential cast is enormous, since they try to reflect something for all age groups. So some characters can disappear for months or even years, yet when they reappear the listener is exected to know not only who they are but all their history too.

I suppose all listeners, depending on their age and interests, have their favourite characters and those whose reappearance is unwelcome. I know some of them are tiresome to me, but I have to remember they are there for younger listeners, or listeners different from me in various ways.

I think the current version of the famous signature tune is an atrocity.

The last time I listened to The Archers was actually the night they killed off Grace Archer, which I think was in September 1955. If memory serves, somebody - Philp? - said 'she's dead' and they didn't play the signature tune. It was believed at the time that Grace's demise was meant to distract attention from the opening of the UK's first non-BBC TV channel. One other memory that's stuck for some reason is that, when Tom Forrest was accused of some crime or other, one listener kindly sent him a noose via the BBC's Birmingham studios.

[Serial_Apologist]

The last time I listened to The Archers was actually the night they killed off Grace Archer, which I think was in September 1955. If memory serves, somebody - Philp? - said 'she's dead' and they didn't play the signature tune. It was believed at the time that Grace's demise was meant to distract attention from the opening of the UK's first non-BBC TV channel. One other memory that's stuck for some reason is that, when Tom Forrest was accused of some crime or other, one listener kindly sent him a noose via the BBC's Birmingham studios.

Shouldn't this come under the Good Noose thread? The only times I hear anything from The Archers is when catching the very end of an episode before something else I want to listen to. It does strike me that some effort has been made to bring its narrative into the 20th century - very few of the old broad S Warwickshire/Worcestershire brogues are to be heard, let alone shod, I would think - the audible influx from Brum is as complete there as everywhere down to Elgar country and the birthplace of The Bard, with even settlers from further afield now ingrained in the field bringing in their, like, metravowels and consonants.