I love Radio 4 BUT.....

[MrsDickens]

....there are some programmes that have me bellowing at the radio like an enraged moose . Like their 'hilarious' comedy slots at 11.30am and 6.30pm. Just endured the horror of a sitcom with Ronnie Corbett as a bumbling grand-dad whose ghastly family ticked every cliche box you can name. Just unbelievably bad, and the memory of many others lingers with me, more's the pity (eg. Pam Ayres' sitcom; that appalling thing about the spies on a boat, and the interminable Scottish woman and her nightmare friends/dog/mother/boyfriend)

So I was wondering - what on Radio 4 can you otherwise-loyal listeners just not abide?

Ah yes but R4 is fab and unique and I love it. Always have it on and get transfixed by weird and wonderful stuff that I would never have purposefully tunes into.

I wake up to Today.

I am irritated by it but I can't keep away. I often switch it off and then put it back on again within seconds, it is like an addiction.

I've finally come round to the Archers

but if I ever manage to accept Just A Minute it will be down to some nifty brainwashing/reprogramming- something along the lines of what happens to Winston Smith at end of 1984

I love the Archers. Actually there is so much that I love about R4. Even Today.

both my children were calmed by the sound of lilybolero...

and yy eddie and paddy were on that celebdaq show together once, they practically made out on the sofa.

Love it all except comedy. None of it is funny apart from the very odd drama.

Any Answers, there's another of my bugbears. It seems to be irresistible to any nutter in the country. You can hear Dimbleby thinking "who let this fruit through" under his breath as he cuts them off kindly.

I hate Today and the comedy shows. But love virtually everything else and listen non-stop. I do listen to Today but hate the shouty bastards.

I think Jenni Murray and Libby Purves come from the same stable of smug condescension. However Jane Garvey is IMO amazing: could listen to her all day. Personally I love love love In Our Time, likewise All in the Mind, and loads of the other factual programming. The Reunion - extraordinary.

Any Answer, yes absolutely.

Again it's the phone in thing.

This is why "I wake to 5live" DP and I each have our own bedside radio alarm clocks

I have woken to Radio Four for years - know the schedule backwards - what I don't know about farming... and this is before I gave birth!
Can't stand Kirsty Young, though - I do like her as a person - just she is not quite right for Desert Island Discs, always asks the next question, rather than any interesting follow up question...
Love Paddy O'Connell... another one gone.

I like gardening and I like Radio 4 but curiously I don't like GQT much. What I can't bear is the audience fawning over the panel. Somebody makes a weak joke or a slight innuendo and the audience collapse into hysterics.

I have just googled "is Eddie Mair gay" - not that I don't believe you lot but....

and according to t'internet, Evan Davis is gay too!

Next you'll be tellng me that the Archers is a soap opera and not Real Country Life.

Evan? I didn't know that.

I bloomin love Radio 4. I also heart Eddie Mair and think he should run for PM. He's great.
Can't stand Counterpoint (isn't it more of a radio 3 kind of programme?), and also get excessively irritated by Mark Lawson and Melvyn Bragg when they try to see how quickly they can say 'hello' at the beginning of their respective programmes before launching into their first sentence. It drives me MAD.
Oh yes and the woman (can't remember her name) who recites poetry and goes on walks gets on my nerves too.
Apart from that I love it. It forms part of the landscape of every day for me, burbling away in the background. V comforting, especially 'sailing by' late at night, and the shipping forecast.

evan d is gay as a goose fgs. and has piercings. paxman apparently calls him tinkerbell behind his back.

the Write stuff and Quote Unquote make me want to beat my head against a wall

there have been sooooo many bad comedies

Moral maze is another head-banger- what a bunch of tossers, honestly

lots of good stuff though too

Hmmm, now I used to watch Working Lunch on BBC2 in the day before hildren, and I never twigged them then. Maybe the piercings were hidden under the sober suits. Actually it has just struck me that pretty much all of the WL presenters are now on R4.

ooh ooh i saw evan davies on the tube the other day

he looks much more handsome and less weird in real life...all tall and gaunt and lovely... (yes i do know he's gay)

I always thought he looked lovely and kind. Friedly, approachable.

Mind you I was in luuurve with Chris from CBeebies for some time before someone pointed out he plays for the other side too.

Note to self: get gaydar serviced, obviously not working.

Ahem, I understand the nickname was 'Tinseltits', in fact.....sounds like a MN username

That's what it is, dublingal. Thanks. Kirsty Young is just not interested in what her castaways have to say. Thus we don't find out anything either.Bring back Uncle Roy.

Despite being a keen gardener GQT always reminds me of my grandparents listening to it when I was of an age to think it was the ultimate in Dullsville. Now it just irritates me with, as joni rightly says, the stupid 'hilarity'.Just answer the bloody question.

They introduced a bit of the ' light-hearted' on Today.Ridiculous. I now listen to 5Live and just get irritated by Nicky Campbell but it helps my short concentration span of a morning!

I love radio. I really do. Honest

Do love all those 'little' programmes such as Ramblings and the Food Programme. So transporting.

Also have a v strange crush on Roger Bolton - he of Feedback. Also totally love Sunday, despite being completely irreligious but think it one of the best produced and interesting programmes on the station. Yay Ed Stourton (the Today programme didn't deserve you).

I love radio4. I want Jon Humphries to be my grandad.

I do like most of the comedies, hut 31 is genius, I enjoyed Sneaky Peaks as well and Fags, Bags and Mags was hillarious. I have to confess that I don't get Count Arthur Strong though and what was that god awful one about a social worker?

the only thing that will actually make me switch off though, is any answers. Just cringeworthy at times [shudder]

oh YES you are right, i knew it was something to do with the piercings but coulnd't remember. tinseltits, because of his nipples.

and oh yes, lanky, i will be running a strictly meritocratic round up. no more favours and cronyism, she's not called mp for nothin'.

(to be clear i am TOTALLY only joking about mp there).