Further to my last post, BBC Radio Four's obituary programme Last Word featured Gareth this week, and should be available here. It's in the last five minutes of the half-hour. Mostly concentrates on his role as Blake; does mention some of his theatre work but not Morgan. Includes nice comments from a friend (Roy Gould) about his extensive ( Read more... )

Today would be Nesta Roberts' 102nd birthday. She has been much in my mind this week, in the aftermath of the Paris shootings. Though it's forty years since she left, I still think of Paris as Nesta's city, and it gradually dawned on me that Charlie Hebdo was founded during her time as the Guardian's correspondent there. I doubt it was regular ( Read more... )

Raising our glasses for the last time to the peerless Cabin Pressure.


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Fanfic came up in Radio Four's Front Row tonight (about twenty minutes into the programme), in connection with Diana Souhami's novel Gwendolen which reimagines George Eliot's Daniel Deronda from the heroine's point of view. Viv Groskop from the Bath Literature Festival seemed to think it was All Very Dangerous ( Read more... )

People have been linking to a site giving entries from historical issues of the Radio Times, so that you can find out what was on the day you were born.

All the reports I've seen so far concentrated on what was on television when they were born, but as I'm addicted to Radio Four I naturally turned to its predecessor, the Home ServiceThis started ( Read more... )

Some schoolgirls give their reactions to the Nigerian kidnapping and the issues raised. I found this simple but moving.

Elsewhere in The Guardian, the headline Move over Lizzie Bennet - let's hear it for the unsung heroine sounded like a response to my suggestion that we might have a break from Pride and Prejudice. It still started with Austen, ( Read more... )

A few days from the end. Trying to eliminate sleep through coffee.

I believe the MJN crew are going to Zurich this evening, and I hope all goes well for them.

Also today, I notice that Radio Four is about to give us a three-part dramatisation of Pride and Prejudice.

I'm fond of Pride and Prejudice, and am sure this version will be nicely done ( Read more... )

Thanks to assorted parties for kind greetings, and to
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Servalan got a prominent role in a discussion of the changing role of women in science fiction on Woman's Hour today. Featured Christine Cornea and Dean Conrad. General feeling seemed to be that women in televised science fiction not bad, women in films going backwards (it seemed to be sparked off by disappointment with latest Star Trek film, ( Read more... )

Today is my father's 109th birthday (and the 100th of our cousin Kathleen, who didn't make it either). Appropriately, Radio Four chose to celebrate with a discussion of the Putney Debates courtesy of In Our Time. Also appropriately, I have a Labour party meeting, and I've just finished off the last slice of Christmas cake, and the first tomato ( Read more... )