Radio 4 for beginners

[strawberrie]

So, I've decided that in a bid to become better informed about current affairs, culture and generally the world beyond my immediate neighbourhood I'd like to get into radio 4. Once the kids go back to school/nursery next week I'll have a bit of time around the house and would like some good informed, witty and interesting stuff to listen to. So what's good? Anything's got to be better than Jeremy Vine...

Not really because he was replaced with Richard bacon who I fancy really rate and I don't miss all that Mayo swallowing stuff that he does.

He still does the (excellent) film review programme in 5live in Friday afternoons. (As well as his r2 drive time one)

Hello
WE've had a request to move this to Radio Addicts - I think it's a v good idea, yes?

I'm not sure, Olivia. Anyone who identifies as a Radio Addict probably has R4 on permanently anyway...

The Archers... like no farming community I've ever been involved with
ever... My family have been farming since the year dot but they're Scottish and I cannot relate at all. Some middle class farmer Sloane going on about how he doesn't like intensive farming. Look mate, the only ones that make money nowadays are intensive farmers.
Love the rest of R4, especially Just A Minute with Julian Clary in it.

I grew up on a farm in Dorset, and I do recognise quite a bit of TA. But there aren't any hill farmers in it.

@EBearhug

I'm not sure, Olivia. Anyone who identifies as a Radio Addict probably has R4 on permanently anyway...

Can see your point but we've moved this over anyway, as don't want it to get auto deleted if we leave it in chat
HAPPY LISTENING all
Love a bit of Paul Temple, me.

Not hill farmers EBearhug

There was a fantastic episode of The Reunion last week featuring various grandes dames of the cookery world. Mary Berry, Prue Leith, Rose Elliott, Claudia Roden and Katherine Whitehorn, I think - apologies if I've left one out! They were reminiscing about ye olden times when if a newspaper published a recipe using broccoli all the readers outside London wrote in to complain that it was unobtainable.

Oh, that was a good one.

I listen to r4 all day in my office. I tune in and out, and lots of it washes over me in a hum of general pleasantness.

You and Yours is often crap enough to warrant me switching off, but the rest is a joy. There was a comedy series called Stop Start which was achingly hilarious about middle aged couples, also a sublime series about the rooms of a house featuring a song about a coffee table which was hilarious but so touching I cried.

Is Dead Ringers radio 4? That's brilliant. And Eddie Mair.

Also I became oddly obsessed with a clip from Woman's Hour about a workhouse in Nottinghamshire. Played it til my ears bled.

I knew r4 was hilariously arcane when I heard an hour long programme theorising on the possible health problems of Mozart.

I became quite involved.

A new series of "Bringing up Britain" with Mariela Frostrup has returned to R4. It was on boosting child IQ, other interesting topics have been sibling rivalry, adoption, single parent families and position within the family hierarchy.

Olivia John Finnemore has a show to plug - can we get him on for a webchat - purlease, pretty please? I'll buy you tea and cakes in the twee local tea room of your choice (you know they are multiplying exponentially!) if you make this happen!

Did anyone listen to Last Word, the obituary programme, this week? Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Oliver Sacks, Joy Beverley and the inventor of London Fashion Week we're discussed. It's really informative and often fun.

I love Last Word

So do I. I also love More or Less.

Yes Gasp0de More or Less is consistently excellent.

i love saturday live and the morning show ( is it called today )

why is there such hatred of saturday live ???

until this thread i thought i was weird for liking gardens question time and the shipping forecast for its soothing nature even though i dont have a clue what they are talking about...now i find i am not alone...there is a whole community of us ! brilliant....we could make a radio 4 show out of it !

theredjellybean it may be because it is a pale imitation of John Peel's Saturday morning magazine programme Home Truths that didn't slip into the awful Anderson Country style whimsy

must be before my radio 4 conversion that one...

YY theredjellybean Home Truths ended over 10 years ago and Anderson Country nearly 20 years ago!

If you are a R4 listener you tend to have a long memory when it comes to programmes and sometimes hold grudges about programme changes!

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Truths. This explains why HT was so good.

If you are a R4 listener you tend to have a long memory when it comes to programmes and sometimes hold grudges about programme changes!

And they know this. They don't go round changing things like the Archers unless they're feeling very brave.

(I mean from a scheduling perspective - they don't currently seem so good at long term continuity of characters.)

Bit late to the party here, but hey. Have been listening to R4 forever, and it accompanies me on many a long car journey, as well as at random times during the day (there's a radio in the kitchen and another in my home office, both permanently tuned to R4).

I'm an Archers fan, primarily, but also love A Good Read, FOOC, The Food Programme, GQT, Word of Mouth and Gloomsbury, to name but a few.

Their one-off programmes and short series can be gripping. There was a wonderful programme last week with Julian Barnes and Robert Peston discussing the loss of their respective partners - it was very moving and well worth listening again.

I enjoy In Our Time but, seriously - is this just me? - isn't Melvyn Bragg turning into Bob Fleming from The Fast Show?