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?

what about rambling? i like her but kinda loathe the show

i'm sick of all the politics at the moment.

I love SOME of the 6.30 etc comedies...

I like the 'health' programmes

I love more than i hate.

Go For It - unbearable middle-class twaddle.

Anything with Melvyn Bragg - his smugness/sycophancy is unbearable.

Anything with Mark Lawson - as above.

Loose Ends - esp when with Ned Sherrin - as above.

You and Yours with Winifred Robinson - unbearable whinging. Have to switch it off.

Love everything else though.

Melvyn Bragg amuses me he may be smug but he is all at sea with the science programmes and often asks completely stupid questions

Peter White is good on You and Yours and everything else, though.

Claire Balding and Alice Arnold are legally wed.
Not that I think it's entirely good form to gossip about their private lives, but sounds like a very happy thing and in the public domain already.

Do you think it would be stupid or useful if I pointed out to DC every time a gay presenter comes on the radio? Only because DC are at the age where they constantly diss each other and friends with "You're gay!" Even if I can scold DC for doing it, they are still exposed to friends doing it, I'd kind of like them to see it as a stupid thing to care about.

Oh, just remembered (because I'm listening to it now) that I love Richard Coles (the Rev. Richard Coles, I should say) when he does 'Saturday Live'. But I simply cannot abide Fee Glover and always feel guiltily glad when she's not doing it....

I love Today, PM, Moneybox Live, Question Time, all the 9am programmes except In Our Time (I'm way too uneducated for it) and can't stand Fi Glover, the 6.30 stuff and the hideous 15 min book that they read at about 11.45am. But radio 4 is the one broadcaster that made me cry while listening to it.

BigBadMummy: "Last Word. Obituaries for a bunch of people I have never heard of..." and "Great Lives"... both have a kind of "charm" like some 1900s newspaper column about someone famous. Admittedly I know about less than half of the people named, usually, so it can be educational, but thinking back, I really did prefer "Week Ending !" (a satirical look back at the week which was on late on Fridays - 23:00 from memory - 15 or more years ago) to any show about someone who is dead! It's just not (IMO) the way to end a week's radio. (Both were on yesterday, "Great Lives" at 16:00, the other at 23:00, how morbid can they get!)

"Loose Ends - it's embarrassing to listen to it sometimes."

sometimes - that's the point. Often listen, I find Clive A is a good host, but a touch bored with Arthur Smith, personally. Not sure "Balham Bash" was good enough first time for it to be worth a new series.

Yes, "Veg Talk" was so trashy as to be funny, seemed to have lots of input from the audience (hence might have been costly in support staff) and I'm glad they scrapped it.

"Count Arthur Strong"... "polarises" - well put! (I hate it, and no longer very keen on "Ed Reardon's Week").. as for John Shuttleworth... oh dear, words fail me!

"Quote, Unquote" - one of my favourites, laugh when some other shows mock it. Also enjoy "The Write Stuff" - while I have an interest in books, it's limited to sci-fi / action / drama (of the find the killer variety, mostly) so some extracts from the books I never touched (and never will) in handy bite-size chunks, and often with some (clever) jokes along the way, makes literature all the more digestible for me!

"Fags, Bags and Mags" - sounded like a product placement show in one of the second series (think there was a corpse hidden in a neighbouring shop) and some air freshener was mentioned by name about 10 times in 2 minutes! Started off OK, but sometimes a bit too far fetched.

"Hut 33" - yes, loved it, especially Minka, the Polish killer! I also enjoyed the recent daft spies shows, but cannot remember the name... an old web dude problem!

"Think the Unthinkable" "Deep Trouble" and "Rigor Mortis" were all shows I enjoyed, though some were considered too daft by some on the BBC MB.

Eddie Mair to rule the world. Love, love, love him. Also love Saturday Live, partic. when Fi Glover's doing it. BH good, Archers tick over nicely in the background and Now Show and News Quiz legendary. Love to hate Today - a day hasn't officially started until I've shouted at john humphries the radio.

Have to admit to being addicted to R4. First up turns it on in the moring, last up turns it off. Means that on the off-chance that I have a moment of two of quiet in the kitchen I stand a chance of giving my brain something to ponder other than the mundanities of my life. Also love the Moral Maze, Reunion, Desert Island Discs,Æny Questions etc.

Hates... Afternoon Play - any drama in fact as there's no way on earth I can get into any of it. The preponderence of whiney American voices doesn't help that though. Quote Unquote - as many others have said, SO smug. As is that uber serious classical music quiz thing. Detest Gardeners' Question Time but then I detest gardening.

Does anyone remeber a play about a long-distance train journey where the staff were trying to outdo each other with filthy announcements.

"ladies & Gentleman, the trolley will shortly be making its way along the carriages with a selcetion of drinks and snacks including tea, coffee, biscuits, M'arse Bars, sandwiches..."

I think it was by Lynn Truss but I remember hooting all the way through.

"that god awful one about a social worker?"

Clare in the Community - I liked that! (Partly because it was whatsherface from Smack the Pony)

I still prefer Kirsty's DID presentation to Sue Lawley's - she really didn't listen.

The voice I really miss is Nick Clarke's--I think that's his name? at World At One. I used to take my lunch break ironing to his lovely tones (I work at home). When he died I felt that I'd lost a friend.

R4 addict here too.

Love The Archers,
Desert Island Discs,
PM,
Woman's Hour (Jane Garvey especially),
Now Show,
Unbelievable Truth,
News Quiz,
Hut 33,
Baggage,
Ed Reardon's week,
The Reunion,
Between Ourselves,
Saturday Live,
The Music Group,
Broadcasting House,
Pick of the Week,
Mark Steel's in Town,
Book of the Week,
The Afternoon Play (I will admit that it is sometimes crap though) and that little 15 min short story sometimes on at 3.30pm.

Hate Round Britain Quiz,
Counterpoint,
Gardener's Question Time , In Our Time (just too high brow for me),
Quote Unquote,
Americana,
Sunday Worship,
Any Questions/Any Answers
but would rather listen to hours of anything on the hate list than bloody Count Arthur Strong.

Just figured I really don't like radio 4 unless its the following too much moaning about the world for me. So I mainaly listen to BBC7
So for me is only the following when i remember
News Quiz Sandy Toksvig
'Just a Minute'
The Now Show
Other than that it's too middle England for me.

"I also can't bear Mark Lawson's delivery on 'Front Row'. However, I'm very partial to 'Saturday Review' "

I wonder how much is spent on their review programmes. Mark Lawson seems to flit off to New York fairly frequently, and how much do they pay the others (or what expenses are there to cover them for spending 2 or 3 days visiting different theatres and other exhibitions/ events, not all of them in London - and what are people 200 miles away meant to get from the reviews?)

Don't get me wrong, I find it mildly interesting to hear what's going on, though 'art' events seemed to be getting into both PM and Today with live reports (nearly always from London, where else!) but elsewhere (apart from Edinburgh) get relatively few mentions.

"I spend quite a bit of Today shouting."
"(Humphries is the worst, but Evan Davis is nearly as bad)."

Soon after Ed was booted off Today I stopped listening as frequently. Evan Davis seemed OK for some interviews (though I consider "The Bottom Line" no substitute for "Nice Work" and "Shop Talk" as ED talks to CEOs and people on 6 or 7 figure salaries while the other two shows {both with great female presenters} spoke to everyone from top to bottom in firms, and had union reps and a broader set of views, very useful and interesting content every time).

Now I don't bother to wake up before 9, because of "the way Today cuts every interview very short" (and it's not just Today, but World at One and PM have been just as guilty), often for them to do "stopwatch radio" to get the travel, weather, sport and advert into the next X minutes, so cannot allow time for a great interviewee to talk at length.

"'In Our Time' makes my head hurt"

I found that one so tedious first time that I have never listened to a whole show in years, and even 3 minutes has me reaching to switch to R2 or FiveLive, or listen to some commercial station with jazz or even "pop" music... anything but dear old Melvyn.

As for "Counterpoint", it is fairly high-brow in my view, and a bit tedious when Ned Sherrin presented, but with Paul Gambacini am I the only one to feel the intro "I like ... but enough about me" is getting really stale?
(I came across Paul G on radiopopbitch.com but have never contributed there!)

I have asked DH to have 'Sailing By' played as I am cremated. I find it very 'cosy' in some strange way!

The news quiz is excellent, I hear it on way home from work and find it difficult to drive while laughing so hard.

I agree the Archers is awful, no idea what's happening, particularly annoying is the Scottish Actor (even tho I'm Scottish)

Can't stand all those plays a la Anita Brooker featuring arch women speaking in Rada tones ...

I find Jenny Murray's diction irritating too - she swallows all her words so you can't hear properly. (Mean of me to say this considering she has been seriously ill though.)

Radio 4 singers seem to hoot alot and hold their notes just a bit too long

Want to throw a wet kipper at Melvyn Bragg's delivery during 'In our time' although topics and guests usually interesting

Can take or leave the Archers - wallpaper listening

LOVE Ewan Davies - he's always laughing and it cheers me up in the morning

LOVE Going Live with Fi or Rev Coles

LOVE all the news coverage and (relatively) intelligent debate re current affairs

LOVE Eddie Mair and Winifred Robinson.

Abr1de, you are so right about missing Nick Clarke. He was the best news journo Radio 4 had, and was in complete contrast to the Today idiots.

I never thought I'd meet anybody that actually liked Count Arthur, well well. You aren't the commissioning editor for comedy on Radio 4 are you? :]

Love Mags and Fags but for me Cabin Pressure was just sublime. So well written and performed I loved every one. Otherwise Now Show and News Quiz are required listening. Veg Talk was well named, they sounded like a pair of Veg. Shame they went and put them on the telly as now people have to look at them as well.

House on Fire? Nah!

I have R4 on most of the day. I like Today, Woman's Hour, In Our Time, Between Ourselves, The Reunion, The Now Show, PM, You & Yours, Just A Minute, most of the quiz stuff.

I hate The Archers, but seem to end up listening to it for some reason, can't understand how it's so popular! Also hate Thought for the Day, patronising drivel IMVHO. Gardener's Question time sends me to sleep and most of the drama is also terible.

I love material world.

Hate Count Arthur Strong.

Loathed Claire in the Community.

Love Fags/mags and bags

Any Answers. Cringeworthy, nuttery, shite. Having said that, I can't stand phone ins as a rule, so not surprising its top of my radar for hatred. DH tortures me with it by refusing to let me turn it off.

I also hate Thought for the Day. Smug, smug, smug. Before mat leave, it used to come on just as I was having my breakfast. I invariably leapt across the kitchen for the off switch shouting fuck off.

Love News Quiz, Now Show, Just a Minute (Sue Perkins ace at it), the shipping forecast and don't mind Today.

The random stuff in between is known in our house as 'any old bollocks', from my mother's tendency to have R4 on as background noise and the consequent observance that she'll listen to any old bollocks, as long as its on Radio 4.

Observation not observance