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Welcome to the Radio Comedy Review blog.
Radio comedies are a largely ignored slice of the radio programming pie. Plenty of people don't stray from music stations when listening to the radio, and many people think of spoken-word stations as being the place only for news and current affairs.
I first became aware of radio comedies when flicking through digital stations late one night many years ago. I stopped on a spoken-work station and did something quite unexpected.
I laughed.
I don't remember the programme I was listening to, but the station was BBC Radio 7 (now BBC Radio 4 Extra) and I became hooked on all sorts of programmes hitherto unknown to me: Paul Temple stories, The News Quiz, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Miss Marple and, of course, all sorts of comedy programmes and panel shows.
Over the last few years I've spent a lot of time listening to BBC radio comedies, either downloaded from the internet, streamed from BBC Sounds, or live on Radio 4 Extra, and I decided to share my opinions of those programmes with others who might be interested in finding something new to listen to.
So here are those opinions, in no particular order.
Radio comedies are a largely ignored slice of the radio programming pie. Plenty of people don't stray from music stations when listening to the radio, and many people think of spoken-word stations as being the place only for news and current affairs.
I first became aware of radio comedies when flicking through digital stations late one night many years ago. I stopped on a spoken-work station and did something quite unexpected.
I laughed.
I don't remember the programme I was listening to, but the station was BBC Radio 7 (now BBC Radio 4 Extra) and I became hooked on all sorts of programmes hitherto unknown to me: Paul Temple stories, The News Quiz, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Miss Marple and, of course, all sorts of comedy programmes and panel shows.
Over the last few years I've spent a lot of time listening to BBC radio comedies, either downloaded from the internet, streamed from BBC Sounds, or live on Radio 4 Extra, and I decided to share my opinions of those programmes with others who might be interested in finding something new to listen to.
So here are those opinions, in no particular order.
I've started making it part of my morning routine to listen to the BBC's Welsh language offering, Radio Cymru, on the way to work. I don't listen for very long, only the 20 minute drive to work, but the idea is that it gets me used to hearing the language and its rhythms and tempo.
And I don't really understand very much of it. I can pick out quite a few words, but not enough to understand whole sentences, although I do have one complete sentence under my belt from the breakfast show one morning: "Mae'r plant yn hoffi y ceffyl, a'r ceffyl yn hoffi'r plant" (the children like the horse, and the horse likes the children). I can just about follow the weather, and if I know some of the topics already, I can understand a little of the news.
Hopefully as time goes on, and in conjunction with my other practices, I'll start to understand more. What's important to remember, and what another learner pointed out, is that Radio Cymru is aimed at *native* speakers; not learners, so being able to understand any of it is a bonus.
Following my first tuning-in, I tweeted that I'd started listening and got a reply and some likes from Radio Cymru presenters, which was encouraging. The reply simply said "Dal ati!" (keep at it). I intend to.
And I don't really understand very much of it. I can pick out quite a few words, but not enough to understand whole sentences, although I do have one complete sentence under my belt from the breakfast show one morning: "Mae'r plant yn hoffi y ceffyl, a'r ceffyl yn hoffi'r plant" (the children like the horse, and the horse likes the children). I can just about follow the weather, and if I know some of the topics already, I can understand a little of the news.
Hopefully as time goes on, and in conjunction with my other practices, I'll start to understand more. What's important to remember, and what another learner pointed out, is that Radio Cymru is aimed at *native* speakers; not learners, so being able to understand any of it is a bonus.
Following my first tuning-in, I tweeted that I'd started listening and got a reply and some likes from Radio Cymru presenters, which was encouraging. The reply simply said "Dal ati!" (keep at it). I intend to.