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?

Tee hee Aitch, don't worry, MP is still Top Banana.

PMSL at Tinseltits. How bizarre to think of that under those sensible suits. Knocks my erotic dream about the PM into a cocked (snigger) hat.

god I feel like I'm about 100 if I ever listen to gardeners' question time

and yet i do find myself listening to it

yes, it's a kinda pal that writes fags, mags etc, i am relieved that i like it so much. he got a sony for it.

hah! yes, that's the true marker of affection for R4... who had it on during labour?

me.

Tell your pal to write more fags, mags etc aitch - funniest thing I've heard in ages. Slippers Ramesh and the wall of crisps standoff... genius

Me (had R4 on during labour)

it is really funny, isn't it?

.

I used to sleep with Radio 4 on, then the World Service. Until the day some joker decided to put The History of the Drums on at 3am. .

LunaticFringe - JH 'soothed' you though labour? I love JH, and he is many things, but soothing's not one of them!

Embarrassed to say I love Gardener's World. The hilarity quotient has gone down since John Cushnee died, but at least he was actually funny, even if you could see it coming a mile off.

I agree about the shipping forecast - it's just beautiful and mesmerising and full of mysterious stuff I don't understand, like a secret coded language.

Oh SkaterGrrrrl - Utter utter genius those words... I will always sing those in my head as I hear the Archers theme tune (and reach over to switch off...) Thank you!

VeryHungryKatypillar - We had R4 on 24 hours a day when my 2 were newborns... DD never fell asleep in the evening until she'd heard Sailing By each night... until she was about 13mo.

Urghhh Moral Maze- I loathe it.

ye gads!!! what is that awful play thing... is it supposed to be a comedy??? Bandages i think it's called!!!... it's 6.30pm when there's supposed to be something funny on!!! argh!!!!

I love Radio 4 but have been going through this list nodding in agreement at all the bits I hate.

Pet hate must be the drama. It never sounds realistic; like someone said above it just sounds like actors acting out stage directions.

Comedy is very variable- sometimes fantastic, sometimes dire. I am occasionally caught offguard by a new series of xxx and I think (a) I don't remember hearing this before, when was the first series of xxx? and (b) this is awful, how did they get a re-commission!

Gardeners Question Time. A long time ago it was a sensible gardening programme. Then they went all lite and is now just double entendre and giggling. Any gardening advice that does get past the flimflam I tend to think 'yeah, I already knew that'. How many times do we need to be told how to make compost, earth up potatoes etc.

Mark Lawson! It has got the stage where I go for the Off button (bear in mind that my radio has no off button, I have Radio 4 by intravenous drip). Cannot bear his voice. Cannot bear his contrived, convoluted links.

Did anyone else notice how unmourned Ned Sherrin was? He was a terrible name-dropping luvvie and his monologues were pure embarrassment.

But Radio 4 is wonderful. As others have said, if it was all that I got out of the licence fee then I would still count myself a very happy bunny. It is nonpareil.

i liked ned sherrin. i loved the luvvie stuff. although was poisonously jealous of les enfants coren and freud automatically getting a shot on the show.

I love Radio 4 and I'll listen to just about anything on it. The one exception to that is Gardeners' Question Time. I just can't bear it. Have to turn the radio off as soon as it comes on.

That might explain why my garden looks like it does

Radio 4 is my spiritual home. I would like to take the controller who took the shipping forecast off FM outside for a punch up - what a mean, horrible, miserable thing to do. (Is it that bloke who is now off to run some Cambridge College? Good riddance to him, now can we have the forecast back, please?)

Love a lot of the comedy - although NOT Count Arthur Ruddy Strong - and find even programmes I used to turn off, like Gardeners' Question Time and the Archers, are growing on me. Must be a sign of age.

Mind you, must get round to writing that living will that states the day I actually laugh at Quote Unquote dh gets to have me put out of my misery (usually reach the off button within ten seconds).

MONEYBOX and MONEYBOX LIVE

It's an Oxford college, can't remember which one. Hold on.

remembered another dreadful one- smiley's people. it ALWAYS seems to be on, and it goes on for weeks and weeks - aarrrggh

St Peter's College Oxford

what's that thing with tom conti/ i love that... fred forsythe i was surprised to leaern

I love Radio 4 I think that the comedy is a strength although you have to pay for it with hit and miss shows

the moral maze and anything to do with the Burke man is unbearable

Evan Davies is awful, far too in love with the 'master' of business, you can practically hear him drool

I love the odd programmes you find here and there like little surprises

Drama is seldom enjoyable

I like Poetry please corny as it is/was? haven't heard it for a while

Ah, yes, Lunatic, the merging of R4 and dreams. Fantastic when it IS a good drama - usually an adaptation of a classic, not some crap. Awful to be woken up by - gah - music, or comedy.