In this article I consider a number of writers and journalists past and present, including Pete May, Philip Knightley, Harold Evans, and Michael Green. All good and true men devoted to the art of the printed word. But first, imagine a broadcast journalist, working for a national radio station, who is so comfortable with telling … Continue reading Radio goes to the movies, and how art imitates life…
Tag: Radio and Literature
The art of presentation…
...on radio is at once both radically complex and stultifyingly mundane. I wrote a previous article in February 2018 about some of my favourite radio presenters. In simple terms I reckon you've either got 'it', or you could - at a pinch - struggle to learn it. But mostly I'm of the opinion that the … Continue reading The art of presentation…
Know any good jokes about radio…?
One of my favourites is a really old one that I first heard over thirty years ago: "I've got a friend who's a newsreader on a medium wave radio station. When we go for a drive he keeps fading out under bridges." ...which probably doesn't work too well in these days of DAB, FM and … Continue reading Know any good jokes about radio…?
This comes with a spoiler alert…
...the best bit is right at the end of this piece. It's the music by James Blake called 'Radio Silence'. If you don't know the track already then you're in for a delightful surprise. But first, I want to point out that the year 2016 was coincidently distinguished by having both a best-selling book and … Continue reading This comes with a spoiler alert…
Listening to the radio is just absurd…
...In fact there's a long tradition of absurd humour in England. Shakespeare included comic asides in his plays. I particularly recall as a schoolboy enjoying Act 5, Scene 3, of Macbeth. Imagine the scene as the English forces begin their approach to Dunsinane. Someone has to break the bad news to Macbeth... Enter a SERVANT … Continue reading Listening to the radio is just absurd…
“…Ha, but my life is but a box of wormgears.”
The musings of Marvin the Paranoid Android seem to sum up neatly some of the trickier bits of the lives we ourselves lead. (The quote is from Life, the Universe and Everything (1982), London:Pan Books, p. 45). Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide, created a genre-busting cross-platform cultural epic in the late 1970s … Continue reading “…Ha, but my life is but a box of wormgears.”
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