Rachael's Week in BBC Radio Vol. 33
This week I listened to a fantastic sci-fi serial and a Rattigan play adaptation for the Beeb plus I finally started on the Welcome to Night Vale podcast everyone has been raving about for something non-BBC.
For the upcoming week, there's nothing really wowing me. The best bet is probably a sitcom set in the English Civil War but it seems like a bit of a dry spell for my interests.
Listened to 1 to 7 September:
Earthsearch Series 1 This come pretty close to being the Platonic ideal of radio serial science fiction, for all the good and that bad. It is a fantastic story and well performed. It does exactly what the best sci fi should, in my opinion, which is give you an exciting adventure story while also giving you something interesting to think about. It is also very episodic with several of the ten half-hour adventures doing nothing to advance the plot and they just fill time. Of the four main characters, two male and two female, the males were definitely more developed, somewhat disappointing since this is from the early 1980s not earlier, but it is forgivably so. There is a sequel series, but I don't know if I'll listen to it or not. This was a great self-contained idea and I don't know that a sequel could add anything and I fear it would just be retread.
Cause Celebre I love Terence Rattigan's plays, or at least every one of them that I've read / heard / seen, and this was no exception. This version is from an Old Vic 2011 production and the cast was fantastic. The play si based on a real-life murder trial in the 1930s and plays two very different women off each other to amazing effect.
Not BBC: Welcome to Night Vale Everyone has been going crazy about this sci fi podcast and I finally got aorund to giving it a go! I... liked it? I did like it, I just didn't love it the way so many people seem to do. It has great moments and witty lines, but after the first three episodes it hasn't given me much to care about. The pieces don't add up to anything more, yet. For those who have listened, is there more development and ongoing plotline as I keep going or is it more of the sketch kind of feel I have from it now? In either case, I'll almost certainly listen to more of it as I was entertained, but if it gets more developed I'll really listen to while if it stays sketchy it will probably end up with all the panel shows as background listening while I'm working on other things, which is certainly not a bad place to be.
Comedy Panel Shows Just a Minute 67:4 This was a pretty disappointing episode. I don't know why, but it just wasn't really entertaining this week. Bummer.
Lee Mack and Friends at the Fringe A few standup comics from the 2005 Edinburgh fringe. Lee Mack was host and I like him. There were two episodes. The first also included Dara O Briain, Alan Carr, Rhod Gilbert and Tim Minchin and I enjoyed them all mostly. The second episode had Andy Parsons, Lucy Porter, Tim Minchin, Alan Cochran and Jim Owen. The only one I enjoyed much at all was Lucy Porter.
Downloading 8 to 14 September:
One-Shots
Wally K Daly - Burglar's Bargains I generally like Wall K Daly's radio stuff. Most of what I have of his is sci fi so this is a bit of a departure as it is a robbery comedy.
GB Shaw - Androcles and the Lion George Bernard Shaw's version of the classic fable.
John Mortimer - Glasnost I love John Mortimer. OK, I love Rumpole, which he wrote, and don't know much of his other work but like what I do know. This one is about a tourist in Moscow and her guide. I don't know anything more than that from the BBC's description.
Peter Tinniswood - Visitors Tinniswood has written lots of BBC radio plays and I've enjoyed all the ones I've heard. This was his last one and is about two people visiting loved ones in a hospital.
Stephen Wakelam - Mrs Tolstoy Omnibus This is next Sunday's omnibus of this week's 15-minute drama. I prefer the single, longer versions when possible. The story here is about Leo Tolstoy and his wife and the problematic final years of their marriage.
Undercover Mumbai - Omnibus Another omnibus from next Sunday for something airing in individual episodes throughout this week. For this one, there's a lot more information available at the individual episodes page than the omnibus. It is about a female police investigator in Mumbai who has to look after an abandoned baby and fight to be recognized as a legitimate officer in the face of sexism and personal problems.
Daily Multi-Episode Programs
Wilkie Collins - Armadale (Calssic Serial) Dramatization of a Wilkie Collins' novel. I've never read this one, but I generally like Collins. This one deals with issues of fate / destiny and hidden identities.
Colin Haydn Evans - Forest Tales I can't figure out from the available information if these are readings, plays, dramatizations, or what. Since the only book I can find attributed to the writer is Writing for Radio, I'm assuming radio plays, but I don't know for sure. Whatever they are, there are three episodes and they are about five medieval travelers in a spooky woods telling each other stories (Canterbury Tales, anyone?).
HP Lovecraft - At the Mountains of Madness A reading of the Lovecraft story. I often avoid readings, but they've done other Lovecraft ones and those worked pretty well for me.
Weekly Multi-Episode Programs Starting this Week
The Sit Crom All I know about this is it is a sit com during the English Civil War / Cromwell's Protectorate and it has Miriam Margolyes in it. That's good enough for me.
Rumer Godden - The Diddakoi A dramatization of a young adult novel about gypsies. I almost passed on this one and will probably take a while to get to it, but ultimately decided to grab it probably just because there isn't much else of interest this week and I'm worried we'll eventually lose the ability to grab anything so I'm grabbing lots now to have a stockpile.
Comedy Panel Shows Just a Minute is somewhere in the middle of its latest run and that's it.
Anything good y'all listened to recently or looking forward to next week?
For the upcoming week, there's nothing really wowing me. The best bet is probably a sitcom set in the English Civil War but it seems like a bit of a dry spell for my interests.
Listened to 1 to 7 September:
Earthsearch Series 1 This come pretty close to being the Platonic ideal of radio serial science fiction, for all the good and that bad. It is a fantastic story and well performed. It does exactly what the best sci fi should, in my opinion, which is give you an exciting adventure story while also giving you something interesting to think about. It is also very episodic with several of the ten half-hour adventures doing nothing to advance the plot and they just fill time. Of the four main characters, two male and two female, the males were definitely more developed, somewhat disappointing since this is from the early 1980s not earlier, but it is forgivably so. There is a sequel series, but I don't know if I'll listen to it or not. This was a great self-contained idea and I don't know that a sequel could add anything and I fear it would just be retread.
Cause Celebre I love Terence Rattigan's plays, or at least every one of them that I've read / heard / seen, and this was no exception. This version is from an Old Vic 2011 production and the cast was fantastic. The play si based on a real-life murder trial in the 1930s and plays two very different women off each other to amazing effect.
Not BBC: Welcome to Night Vale Everyone has been going crazy about this sci fi podcast and I finally got aorund to giving it a go! I... liked it? I did like it, I just didn't love it the way so many people seem to do. It has great moments and witty lines, but after the first three episodes it hasn't given me much to care about. The pieces don't add up to anything more, yet. For those who have listened, is there more development and ongoing plotline as I keep going or is it more of the sketch kind of feel I have from it now? In either case, I'll almost certainly listen to more of it as I was entertained, but if it gets more developed I'll really listen to while if it stays sketchy it will probably end up with all the panel shows as background listening while I'm working on other things, which is certainly not a bad place to be.
Comedy Panel Shows Just a Minute 67:4 This was a pretty disappointing episode. I don't know why, but it just wasn't really entertaining this week. Bummer.
Lee Mack and Friends at the Fringe A few standup comics from the 2005 Edinburgh fringe. Lee Mack was host and I like him. There were two episodes. The first also included Dara O Briain, Alan Carr, Rhod Gilbert and Tim Minchin and I enjoyed them all mostly. The second episode had Andy Parsons, Lucy Porter, Tim Minchin, Alan Cochran and Jim Owen. The only one I enjoyed much at all was Lucy Porter.
Downloading 8 to 14 September:
One-Shots
Wally K Daly - Burglar's Bargains I generally like Wall K Daly's radio stuff. Most of what I have of his is sci fi so this is a bit of a departure as it is a robbery comedy.
GB Shaw - Androcles and the Lion George Bernard Shaw's version of the classic fable.
John Mortimer - Glasnost I love John Mortimer. OK, I love Rumpole, which he wrote, and don't know much of his other work but like what I do know. This one is about a tourist in Moscow and her guide. I don't know anything more than that from the BBC's description.
Peter Tinniswood - Visitors Tinniswood has written lots of BBC radio plays and I've enjoyed all the ones I've heard. This was his last one and is about two people visiting loved ones in a hospital.
Stephen Wakelam - Mrs Tolstoy Omnibus This is next Sunday's omnibus of this week's 15-minute drama. I prefer the single, longer versions when possible. The story here is about Leo Tolstoy and his wife and the problematic final years of their marriage.
Undercover Mumbai - Omnibus Another omnibus from next Sunday for something airing in individual episodes throughout this week. For this one, there's a lot more information available at the individual episodes page than the omnibus. It is about a female police investigator in Mumbai who has to look after an abandoned baby and fight to be recognized as a legitimate officer in the face of sexism and personal problems.
Daily Multi-Episode Programs
Wilkie Collins - Armadale (Calssic Serial) Dramatization of a Wilkie Collins' novel. I've never read this one, but I generally like Collins. This one deals with issues of fate / destiny and hidden identities.
Colin Haydn Evans - Forest Tales I can't figure out from the available information if these are readings, plays, dramatizations, or what. Since the only book I can find attributed to the writer is Writing for Radio, I'm assuming radio plays, but I don't know for sure. Whatever they are, there are three episodes and they are about five medieval travelers in a spooky woods telling each other stories (Canterbury Tales, anyone?).
HP Lovecraft - At the Mountains of Madness A reading of the Lovecraft story. I often avoid readings, but they've done other Lovecraft ones and those worked pretty well for me.
Weekly Multi-Episode Programs Starting this Week
The Sit Crom All I know about this is it is a sit com during the English Civil War / Cromwell's Protectorate and it has Miriam Margolyes in it. That's good enough for me.
Rumer Godden - The Diddakoi A dramatization of a young adult novel about gypsies. I almost passed on this one and will probably take a while to get to it, but ultimately decided to grab it probably just because there isn't much else of interest this week and I'm worried we'll eventually lose the ability to grab anything so I'm grabbing lots now to have a stockpile.
Comedy Panel Shows Just a Minute is somewhere in the middle of its latest run and that's it.
Anything good y'all listened to recently or looking forward to next week?