I cannot believe that he's back on again.

[jodevizes]

I cannot believe Count (Jim Naughtie) Arthur Strong is on yet again.

What does this man have on the commissioning editor? What ever it is it certainly good.

Another half hour of dead time sigh.

I KNOW
I was JUST thinking the same....

OMG when is it on? I have to avoid it as it brings me out in hives and induces irrational tourette like groans of pain

Uuurrrrggghhhh I hate Count Arthur Strong (secretly love Jim Naughtie though! )

Jodevizes I came on here to say the very same thing.I cannot stand him.I listen to R4 all day whilst at work,thankfully 11.30 on Wednesdays is when I dash home for a wee and a sandwich before going to my next job,so can avoid listening to him.

I once was sitting with a group of people who were raving about how funny he was and that they were off to see him live.I was open mouthed in amazement and mentioned that I couldn't stand him,and couldn't believe they thought he was entertaining.Now I hate him even more for making me be rude.

I love it

I KNEW this was going to be about Count Arthur Strong.

It has to be stopped. Something has to be done.

I can't stand him either.

And I can listen to 'You and Yours' and 'Moneybox Live' without flinching...

I always feel that Moneybox went downhill when it lost its jaunty theme tune ("You may have money to burn or something or other or keep your savings stuffed inside a sock dum de dum dum dum de dum dum what you must do is tune to Moneybox")

It was around the time that Thatcher made us a nation of shareholders the 80s take on the fucked up public sector-- Big Society. And the loss of the Moneybox theme tune marked our solemn descent into taking savings seriously.

No wonder I never grasped the concept of financial responsibility - a child of the Thatcher years, doubly scarred by T & the demise of the Moneybox theme tune.

Luckily PM didn't flag when it lost its theme tune - thanks to the sainted Mair. On the other hand, though the programme may be thriving, current & world affairs do seem to be heading hellwards in a handbasket.

As should Count AS.

I salute you MonicaDickens, I can just about handle You n Yours, there are sometimes interesting items, especially on-line scam warnings, but Money Box Live I run for cover. It just reminds me of my debt and how I cannot handle it.

I suppose The right Count appeals to a crowd from times more innocent, like the 40's or 50's wish he would go back there.

I'm sticking my neck out: I LOVE Count Arthur Strong! as did my late mum. Allow me to explain..

I think it stems from having known my dad (they'd been seperated for years) who is almost exactly the silly old narcissistic big fish in a small pond that CAS is.

I can understand it seeming a bit Marmite-y (love it or hate it) if most people don't know someone like that, but those who do seem to get where he's coming from.

AAAAaaaaaarghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Count Arthur Strong (about as much fun as being put on the rack until every joint is broken!)

I knew this would be about CAS. I rather like it...

'Law in Action' anyone? It gets my vote for the most wildly inappropriate title for a radio 4 programme. Zzzzzzzzz

And anything but anything is better than Quote, unquote. What is point?

Don't think I'd ever listened to 'Quote Unquote' till I heard ISIHAC taking the piss out of it. Made it very listenable to, though prob not as the programme makers would have wished.

If we get a Charles Paris Mystery with Bill Nighy for every CAS series, I'll salivate not complain.

I enjoy "Quote... Unquote", "The Write Stuff", "Off the Page", "Law in Action" and even "Moneybox" (+ 'Live' show phone in). "You + Yours", despite various comics joking about it, often has useful tips.

Also enjoyed "A World in your Ear" with Rosie Goldsmith ( World Radio Network [based in London and going for over 10 years] carries most of the radio stations she played extracts from in her shows).

I think "The Bottom Line" is a poor replacement for "Nice Work" and "Shop Talk". I miss "Learning Curve, "Breakaway, and "Week Ending".

I don't listen to "Great Lives" or "Last Word", nor to "Beyond Belief", "Something Understood", religious broadcasts, farming.

I listen from 8 to 18 hours a day and sometimes record 24x7 on computer if I know I will need to be out of the house without opportunities to listen.

CAS is just weird, I know it's meant to be retro but really!

We call it "the Programme Time Forgot" in this house.

And I tolerate Y and Y but only when bloody Winifred Robinson with her wanky, pseudo posh scouse accent is NOT presenting. (full disclosure: I was born in Liverpool and my whole family lives there)

That (first-class Count) Arthur Strong makes me want to chew my own ears off. It is about the only programme on R4 that makes me reach for the off switch.

I get that he's supposed to be a pompous idiot with a massively inflated sense of his own importance. Fair enough, that could be a workable basis for a light comedy. What I can't get is a) why that the story lines are just so sodding dire, and b) how the fumbling-over-words spoonerism thing is so funny it leaves the studio audience in apparent danger of losing bladder control.

It's the 21st century. The range of comedy talent available to R4 is vast. And they waste time and money on that shite? FFS.

Since this is turning into an 'All Progs We Can't Stand on R4' thread, may I say:

Moral Maze
I-PM
Loose Ends (unfunny even when Ned was alive)
John Humphreys (not actually a programme but still even more annoying than CAS)

Arrrrrrrrrrrgh, I'm another one who knew this must be about That Programme. It is the only thing on R4 I find absolutely unbearable. I can't enter into a more detailed critique because I've heard so little of it.

Don't like misery fests like the Moral Maze or the one with Feargal K.

I do love R4, though, and R7 & there are so many great programmes. V glad there's the iPlayer too for radio, thinking back to the/my old gimmer days of R4 on LW, when I only had reception mornings and evenings & bad weather would produce zzzzzsssssszzzz every other word.

The Pallisers by Trollope was the background to my moving house - a 5-person household packed with me somewhere in Victorian England. Remember thinking 'Bloody hell, is that all that's on?' and about a dozen packing cases later being annoyed at having to wait till the next day for the next episode.

John Humphreys on the subject of Science or Modern Life is guaranteed to get any morning off to a crap start, I spend the rest of the day seething, which is why I switched to Radio 3 at breakfast, where the only concession to topicality is a brief mention of a really interesting picture in The Independent of Hubble Telescope/new theatre at Bayreuth/MRI brain imagery. Life is lovely in Radio 3 morning land.
Quote Unquote is my pet hate. Why are these people withering on on my radio? And why are they all so ignorant?
"Who asked 'To be, or not to be?'"
"Ooh, that's familiar! It sounds like it might be Dickens"

Agree Dilys - do they choose guests for Quote Unquote who have never read a book specifically to annoy me? It's still not as bad as Just a Minute though.

Oh god Quote Unquote is what they'll play me in hell. And The Write Stuff is nearly as bad, as is Loose Ends (agree was just as bad if not worse when Ned was alive).

From Our Own Correspondent, PM and The Archers are worth the license fee on their own though, IMO. And Tracing Your Roots is great too. And Any Questions ... but could do without the shower of nonsense that is Any Answers. Always features at least one caller who makes my machete arm twitch.

Lol! I knew this would be Count Arthur Strong when I saw the thread title! Can't bear him, switch off as soon as I hear his voice.