My podcasts (January 2025)

Podcasts have become extremely popular in recent years allowing people to make podcasting their day job which is a far cry from when I first started listening to them in 2006.

I have written about podcasts a few times since then and I did a list of everything that I subscribe to in 2019. It is time for an update.

Looking back at that 2019 list there are a few podcasts that have been cancelled and which I miss greatly; these include Digital Planet, Material World and Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone. There are also several that I have fallen out of love with, hence the need for a new list.

I am not going to go through everyone of them, you can see what they are, but I will say something about some of the new ones.

The FT news briefing is my attempt to listen to financial news that focuses on the finance and leaves the political stuff to other shows. I gave up on all of the BBC finance shows for that reason and while it is far from perfect the FT news, being American based, is at least fairly neutral about UK.

Here Comes The Guillotine is funny chat with a twist of politics and I like that it is very Scottish with a strong dollop of Irish. The different perspective makes it more interesting.

Happy Heat Pump is new and has yet really to find its feet. I expect to be getting a heat pump in the not to distant future and I was hoping that this would help me with the various choices (water or air to water or air) but it, so far, added more complexity, e.g. solar panels and batteries, to what was already a difficult decision.

Trashfuture is an intelligent look at the world today through justifiable cynical eyes and is delivered with humour. I've been to see live recordings, twice.

The World This Week is another attempt to get away from the dreadfulness of BBC and covers the political news with a French perspective.

 

Cory Doctorow's podcast is cantered on his many books, fact and fiction, both of which have a heavy technical content which suits me.

Limelight is a BBC drama podcast. BBC seems not what to do with podcasts and it is unclear how they choose what to release as full podcasts, as podcasts that you can only subscribe to on BBC Sounds and which are just drama shows on BBC Sounds. I like the flexibility of podcasts (e.g. no 30 day limit for listening) and wish BBC would release more drama that way.

Moral Maze is there because sometimes we have Humanists debates on the same topics. It usually a pretty poor discussion and it drives me mad. I should stop.

The Political Fourcast is another BBC alternative, this time UK politics from Channel Four.

99% Invisible is a gem. It talks about design in a way that entertains and informs in equal measure. Unmissable.

No Gods No Mayors and Well There's Your Problem are adjacent to Trashfuture but lack its precise direction. If I walked less and so had less time to listen to podcasts then I would probably drop these.

The War on Cars does what is says on the tin. It is American where the car problem is even greater but the problems and solutions they discuss apply to us too.

Page 94 is a Private Eye fill-in between the print issues and is excellent.

It's Bloody Complicated is a political discussion from Compass, an organisation that I belonged to for a while. Not particularly original or challenging but it is good to hear something from the centre-left.

BBC Best of Today stopped before I could unsubscribe and is only here because of the special Christmas programmes where they have guest editors. If it every comes back properly then I will unsubscribe.

Trash Talk and Uncensored are comedy podcasts by well known comedians who manage to make some good political points along the way.

Michael Spicer No Room is a topical sketch show which manages to stand head and shoulders above the many other topical sketch shows. There has been one full series and a couple of once-offs. I am hoping for a lot more.

BBC Bias: Saying something important has happened when it hasn't

Pretending the something important has happened is the most obvious and common way that the BBC shows its pro-Tory bias. There were two very good examples of it today.

In the morning a sacked minor minister Owen Paterson called for Climate Change targets to be dropped and, despite being a nobody with no influence, managed to get plenty of time on the BBC to put his point of view. Liam Fox is another ex-Minister (and do not forget why he had to become an ex) who only has to speak to have the doors to the BBC open for him.

But the story that I wanted to give as an example was David Cameron doing nothing about immigration.

All that happened was he said that something needed to be done about immigration, which he had said many times before, but the mere fact the he said it was enough for the BBC to give it top-billing on their News page. This gives the false impression that something is being done and that Cameron is doing it.

The Conservatives would love to be able to buy publicity like this, and perhaps they are.

BBC Bias: It is how you present the story

One of the most obvious ways that the BBC shows its pro-Tory bias is the way that it presents stories and so, effectively, defines what the story is.

There are many example is this, here's one from today.

The real story here is that Tory Minister Lord Freud suggested people with disabilities could be paid less than the minimum wage as they were "not worth the full wage".

That is a damning insight to the private thinking of a prominent Conservative.

But, by presenting the story as his apology the BBC manages to make the villain of the peace something of a hero and hides the crime for which he has had to apologise for.

BBC Bias: It's the words that they use

The way that the BBC most clearly shows their pro-Tory bias is in their choice of words.

For example, the Bedroom Tax is now the "so-called Bedroom Tax" simply because the Government did not want it called that. Normally it is common usage that defines what words mean and what things are called, and everybody except most (not all) Conservative politicians call the Bedroom Tax the Bedroom Tax.

Often the words that the BBC chooses to use are taken directly from the Tory press release and so immediately reinforce the Tory viewpoint, such as in this case today.

By choosing to echo the Tories' word "freedom" the BBC is already telling us that this is a good thing.

But freedom is not always good. The banks were given too much freedom, also known as "light-touch regulation", and that plunged the world in to a deep recession.

And there are very good reasons why people were not given the "freedom" to take their pensions early before. Put simply, this was to make sure that people had the money to look after themselves in their old age rather than having to call on the State to do so.

It does not matter which side of this argument you are on, the point is by describing it as an issue of "freedom" the BBC has already decided that it is a good thing and so implied that there is no argument here to be had. The simple word "changes" would have been more accurate.

BBC bias: Hide the story

One of the more subtle ways that the BBC pursues its pro-Tory agenda is to hide stories that suggest that the economy is not doing as well as the Tories would have us believe.

That's why, for example, most people think that the deficit is falling when it is actually rising again; it's up 6% this year.

Part of the reason for the rise is that Income Tax income is less than expected and that is because many of the much heralded 2 million new jobs are low paid and so pay little Income Tax, as the latest figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) show. To quote them, "many new jobs were low paid or created through low-paid self-employment."

This is clearly big news as it shows that the Government's economic plan is not working (the deficit cannot be reduced without tax income) but you'd struggle to find it on the BBC News website - it's second from bottom in the list of minor stories at the bottom of the page, and it's not even visible at all until you scroll down the page.

The story is also missing completely from the Politics page. The BBC is treating it as a Business story though it has little to do with business and everything to do with politics. Putting the story on the Business page is just another way of hiding it.

Forgiving Ibsen's Ghosts

In addition to going to the theatre regularly I also listen to the BBC Radio Drama of the Week podcast which picks just one play each week from the many broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4.

As luck would have it, a recent choice was Ibsen's Ghosts in a production taken directly from the West End. I had not enjoyed a recent staging of the play but was prepared to give the radio version a chance, and I am glad that I did.

One of the features of Ghosts is that there is next to no physical action, apart from a few exits and entrances, so it is an obvious choice for the radio. In fact I think that it worked better as a radio play and hearing it through earphones made it even more intense.

I do not know whether it was a second watching/listening of the play, this adaptation or because it was on the radio rather than the stage but I picked up a lot more of the fine details of the story this time and that certainly helped me to appreciate it.

And because this was radio there was no interval. The stage version that I saw had an interval and I though that it broke the flow of the play but the stage version that this radio play was based on does not have an interval.

I would still not go as far as to say that Ibsen's Ghosts is a classic, or even that it is a favourite of mine, but this radio version did a lot to improve its reputation in my eyes and I might even go and see it on stage again.

Political tweeting with the BBC

Twitter has enlivened the watching and listening of political programmes as now you can shout at the world and not just at your telly.

The BBC actively encourages this on its main audience participation programmes Any Questions (Radio 4) and its young upstart Question Time (BBC One).

Even better, Any Questions is followed by Any Answers which has moved over the years from the paper post (the answers were broadcast a week after the original debate) to the telephone to email and now to Twitter.

I have had a few tweets read out on Any Answers but this week was even better as I got retweeted BBC Radio 4 and so my comment, on the lasting legacy of capitalism, was picked up by more people than usual leading to more retweets, more followers and some bizarre replies.

All that is much better that ranting at a box that can't argue back.

For the record, this is what I tweeted during this week's programmes.

Any questions?

Apart from petty vindictiveness, what actually is the point in denying prisoners the right to vote? #bbcaq

We should back down and let all prisoners vote as is their human right and we'll forget what all the fuss was about in a few weeks. #bbcaq

In my children's lifetime we will lose Holland to the sea but all the Tories will talk about is the short-term cost of renewables. #bbcaq

The mistake is only counting the financial cost of energy and ignoring the environmental cost that will critically damage the planet. #bbcaq

The lasting legacy of capitalism will be that it made us destroy the planet because that's what the numbers told us to do. #bbcaq

Anybody who thinks that economically and politically that GB is anything like CH is clearly bonkers. #bbcaq

Question Time

IDS grandstands that Parliament is sovereign and not one person clapped. #bbcqt

Prisoners are still human so they still have human rights. The clue is in the name. #bbcqt

If the UK Parliament flaunts the law will they lose the right to vote too? #bbcqt

Prisoners should be allowed to vote. To restrict democracy in this way is inhumane and is a dangerous route to take. #bbcqt

Don't forget that Charles Kennedy sacked an MP (mine) for just saying she understood why Palestinians are angry. #bbcqt

Kind of guessing that posh boy in the audience has never been to Gazza. #bbcqt

It's a false question; Hammas are responding to the continual growth of illegal settlements and the blockade. #bbcqt

Why a referendum on Europe and why now? We cannot relive all our major political decisions every thirty years. #bbcqt

I'd rather have a tighter relationship with Brussels and weaker one with Westminster. Our MPs are nothing to be proud of. #bbcqt

Don't forget that there is a woman bishop in the Anglican Church already, Ellinah Wamukoya in South Africa. #bbcqt

Reggie Perrin Series 2 is promising

Series 2 of Reggie Perrin, the modern remake of the 70s classic, is now being filmed at Teddington Studios and I went to see it.

The studios, not surprisingly, are in Teddington on the river by the lock, and so it is easy for me to get there for recordings. It's little more than a 15 minute walk. I've seen a few things filmed there but not for a little while so I jumped at the chance to see Reggie Perrin with it's great cast and solid writing team.

Martin Clunes heads the cast and, frankly, dominates the show despite the good people behind him. But he plays the lead role so that is good.

He also added a lot to the filming with his bemused expressions at other actors' mistakes and his ad libs, sadly too rude to repeat here!

Series Two continues to mimic the 70's original without directly copying it so there are many familiar features and catch-phrases but a lot of new things too, such as the love interest for Reggie's wife.

The filming went well with only one fit of the giggles to extend the retakes, though most scenes were shot twice for little or no apparent reason.

We had a warm-up guy to keep us amused between takes but while he was quite good I am not sure that he was needed as the breaks were short, unlike at Karen Taylor where the breaks were so long at the warm-up guy got cold.

The humour in Reggie Perrin comes from the situation and the rich dialogue where every word is important, rather than from any overt punchlines or slapstick. This means that there are few audible laughs but the situation and the script sustain the comedy and the drama throughout and the show is well worth watching.

A welcome return for Hustle

Having been made to wait two years for series 5 we now have series 6 following in almost unseemly haste less than a year later. For fans like me that is excellent news.

Series 6 carries on where series 5 left off with the same cast and the same slick scripts that keep Hustle warmly back at their roots, in London doing classy scams to deserving victims while the police circle impotently.

Hustle creator Tony Jordan was at the scriptwriting helm for the first episode and he delivered in spades.

Even though you believed (or hoped) that the gang would avoid prison, it was wonderful to see how they did it and there were lots of tense moments and laughs along the way.

And the news gets even better with the release of series 5 on DVD next week (my Amazon order was placed months ago).

After the bitter disappointment of Day of the Triffids, it is good to be able to compliment the BBC on producing some excellent drama. Hustle is a real treat in a bleak schedule that otherwise seems to be lying comatose waiting for the return of Dr Who.

Diabolical Day of The Triffids

When I first immersed myself in adult fiction almost forty years ago most of the books that I read were sci-fi classics by H G Wells, Jules Verne and John Wyndham and I have enjoyed many of these stories retold in other media over the years.

For example, I recently watched the 1995 American film version of John Wyndam's Village of the Dammed (based on The Midwich Cuckoos) and was surprised by how good it was.

And I also loved the take on Jules Verne's From The Earth to The Moon by Warren Ellis in a recent issue of Planetary.

So it was with some joy that I was looking forward to the two part adaptation of Wyndham's Day of The Triffids on BBC 1.

How wrong I was.

The plot, such as it was, was so full of gaping holes and clichés that it actually became funny. Things like finding two small children survivors who immediately start calling the two leads "Mum and Dad", the way that everybody had got hold of sub-machine guns, the amount of time people spent walking through dark woods when they were trying to keep away from the Triffids, and the apparent disappearance of all food and water after the disaster. I could go on.

But for me the real mistake with this adaptation was the minor played by the Triffids. Far from being the things that we were all meant to be scared of they played a mere supporting role to the unexplained and unconvincing evil of the Eddie Izzard character (not from the original book).

Ironically Eddie Izzard's acting was the one redeeming feature of an unbelievably bad programme that simply failed to do any of the things that it promised and unfairly used the worth legacy of John Wyndham to try and justify its existence. If it had (reasonably) not been called The Day of The Triffids then nobody would have watched it and we would all be happier for this.

In place of cuts - making taxation fairer

My latest foray into the world of politics was another Compass briefing, this time on their recently launched policy paper on taxation that responds to the almost unanimous call to slash cuts with an alternative approach. Hence the title, In place of cuts.

The meeting was held at the Houses of Parliament which is still not familiar enough to be mundane. It amuses me that the security is less there than at the BBC; both x-ray bags but the BBC always find my penknife whereas Parliament never does. After security comes the still impressive St Stephen's Hall then the long walk along grand corridors to the committee rooms with their narrow leather-bound seats.

Professor George Irvin, the main author of the report, introduced the report with three simple slides that analysed the problem and recommended a set of measures that would both increase tax income and make the overall tax system more progressive (the richer you are the more you pay).

This chart clearly shows the problem; the poorest people pay proportionally most tax and while the middle incomes pay progressively more tax this drops off at the high end.

The solutions proposed In place of cuts include a fair degree of tinkering with the tax system to smooth the curve out. I support some of the proposals, such as removing the the upper limit on National Insurance Contributions, but I think the overall problem cannot be fixed by playing around with income tax measures.

This graph tells me that taxation works well for, but only for, the middle income group (on, say, £10k to £80k) and that income tax is not the way to address the anomalies at either end.

One reason why this is the case is that any changes to taxation impact the middle income band as well as the band that you are trying to target.

The other reason is political. Nobody ever voted for tax increases even if they were for rich people only and tax cuts are soon forgotten.

Apart from correcting a few of the current anomalies I would prefer to help the lower end through benefits and schemes like Sure Start (i.e. giving them some things for free) and to tax the high end through, for example, capital and property taxes.

Desert Island Discs with Kirsty Young

The list of podcats that I listen to is fairly stable but does get updated from time-to-time, such as with the recent addition of Danny Bakers BBC Radio 5 show, Robert Elms' BBC London show and the removal of the too voluminous and not quite interesting enough LSE events.

The latest change is the welcome arrival of Desert Island Discs, a mainstay of the BBC Radio 4 schedule for over sixty years. I have listened to it quite a lot but in recent years the timings have not suited my lifestyle so it has slipped me by.

But from today it is available as a podcast so once again I can savour this audible treat. And what an episode to start with, the iconic Morrisey.

Sparks on The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman

The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman is an unusual album, even for Sparks. Originally designed as a radio programme for Sweden (and hence written in Swedish) it is now being released in English and Sparks are in the UK to promote it.

One of these promotional appearances was on the Stuart Maconie Radio 6 programme, Freak Zone, and this was recorded in front of an enthusiastic audience, myself included. This was at the BBC Radio Theatre, a familiar venue for me which made getting middle seats in the front row hardly a challenge.

The show started with the album played in its entirety. It narrates the fictional but allegorical story of Ingmar Bergman's attempted seduction by Hollywood.

Ingmar Bergman plays the role of narrator of his own story and he provides the link between the songs.

Musically the album is something of a new direction for Sparks (not that they are unused to taking new directions) and there is only one song that sounds as though it could have come off one of the recent albums.

From one hearing it is hard to define a theme or a mood to the music but I do recall a lot of heavier rock-like tunes. There was also a lot of what I thought was Steve Reich influenced.

The hour of music was followed by an hour of interviewing though I suspect it will be greatly edited down when broadcast on 8 November as Stuart Maconie looked and sounded rather lost at times and the interviewed drifted poorly between subjects and (mostly) failed to reach any meaningful depths.

It was not all gloss though and when Sparks were asked specific questions about music (most of these were audience questions) then we did learn some new things, such as Ron's appreciation of the music of Bernard Hermann (most famous for the soundtracks to several Hitchcock films) and of John Adams.

But I do not want to focus on the negatives because it was a very good evening; we got to hear the exciting new Sparks album before its official release and got to spend an hour in their easy company. It's nights like this that make living in London such fun.

Danny Baker back on Radio 5

It is great to see Danny Baker back where he belongs on the Radio 5 live Saturday morning show with his unique mix of football and comedy. Where else could you learn about a football fan who had two season tickets, one for himself and one for his flask?!

The BBC has also had the good sense to podcast the show, minus the news and weather spots, to give us an hour and a half of good entertainment which is perfect for the Monday morning commute.

This restores the natural justice since the lamented demise of the All Day Breakfast Show, Danny's podcast only programme from a couple of years ago where I was a proud member of the Elite Premium Guard, or some other such nonsense.

All I need to do now is get Danny to publicly demolish Kingsmeadow and his show will be perfect.

The News Quiz 21 May 2009

The Friday evening comedy slot on Radio 4 alternates between The Now Show and The News Quiz and while I have been to see recordings of The Now Show several times I had never been to see the The News Quiz until this week.

The News Quiz is also recorded on Thursday evenings at the BBC Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House so much of evening followed the usual ritual.

Part of this was a pizza at the Pizza Express all but next door but this may be for the last time. Comments made on previous visits and provided a £10 gift token but not an improvement in service - the dough balls ordered for a starter failed to arrive but were included in the bill. Not impressed.

Decided not to rush for the show and was happy to join the queue in position 100, instead of the usual 50. This was still good enough to get into the first waiting room (despite the usual incident with security which then made it easy to get a seat in the middle of the second row.

The stage was set up quite simply in the traditional game show way with Sandi Toksvig, the chair, sitting in the middle with the news reader, Francis Wheen and Robert Ince on her right and Steve Punt and Fred MacAulay on her left.

Steve Punt, as one of The Now Show creators is not meant to also appear on The News Quiz, and I guess that he was there as a late replacement for Jeremy Hardy who is a regular on the show and who was in that episode according to the BBC website.

The format is quite simple, each contestant in turn gets asked a question on a topical question which they find a correct but amusing way to answer and then the other panellists chip in with other relevant am musing comments. When the rambling runs out of steam Sandi brings the question to a close and moves to the next one. This goes on for three rounds.

The show is clearly partially scripted and the panellists have prepared some bon mots on topics that they know are likely to come up, like MPs' expenses.

The overall effect is rather like a conversation at a dinner party where everybody lets everybody else say their piece and emotions are kept well in check.

As a result it is consistently amusing but rarely very funny. The broadcast version is funnier because they edit it down from around one hour to half.

Some of this editing is pretty simple and brutal, of the twelve questions recorded only nine were broadcast. The rest of the editing pares the rambling down so that only the bonnest mots that pass UK legislation are broadcast.

I was glad I went as being there to see a show being made is always interesting but, unlike The Now Show, the live version of The News Quiz is not that much funnier that the broadcast one so I am unlikely to go again.

The Now Show, 23 April 2009

The umpteenth (i.e. 26th) series of The Now Show ended this week and I was in the audience for the recording; the second show that I had seen this series.

The logistics were much as before, though a school meeting meant travelling to Oxford Circus on the train from Kingston rather than the tube from Richmond, and after dinner in Pizza Express we found ourselves around 40th in the queue for the show and were then well placed in the waiting room for front row seats, which we got.

We prefer to sit right of centre as that is where most of the action is.

Hugh Dennis is roughly in the middle of the stage with Steve Punt to the right and Mitch Benn goes further right still when he plays his three songs and does his various character voices.

Left from Hugh you have Jon Holmes and Laura Shavin who speak a lot less.

No Marcus Brigstocke this week but he was ably replaced by Lloyd Langford who was very funny on and off script.

Anybody who has head The Now Show knows what to expect and they duly delivered. We had topical jokes on the budget and some of this series' running jokes, e.g. kids being amazed by the bleeding obvious.

Also as usual, the live show is around 50 minutes and this gets edited down to 30 for broadcast. I think that the BBC is missing a trick here and I would love to see the full show being podcast. Material World used the lack of time constraints to have a longer podcast recently and I see no reason why The Now Show should not do the same.

One of the loudest cheers of the evening went to Laura Shavin who had to read out a long and complicated Chemistry question from an old exam.

This gives me a good excuse, not that I really need one, to include a close-up of Laura (having failed to do so two weeks ago).

She was some distance away and obviously I could not use a flash during the recording but I am pleased with the camera's ability to sense the light, zoom digitally and allow for my shaking.

There was no audience question this week, instead we were offered the chance to display our audio talents to the world.

Only one person rose to the challenge seriously and you may hear him gargle "Rule Britannia" for about a second when the show is broadcast. In order to do this, he had to sign a page long contract to give the BBC full rights to use the recording of his gargling! Jon Holmes read the full contract in amazement and then Steve Punt pointed out that Jon's contract had all the same clauses in it!

The rest of settled for submitting amusing but impracticable entries and three (of four) of ours were read out so we will be listening to the broadcast version to see if any made it through the editing process. The claimed talents were to do an very quick summary of Alistair Darling's budget ("We're doomed!"), play the Welsh Harp to concert standards (sadly not brought with us) and to be a Wookie who can do Mitch Benn impressions. The last one made Mitch Benn laugh anyway.

The evening ended nicely with a quick word with Mitch Benn and his wife following my chance encounter with Mitch earlier this week.

I have also had chance encounters with Steve Punt (John Lewis in Kingston) and Hugh Dennis (outside Television Centre when I was queueing for Two Pints ...) so either I am a lucky guy or it is all down to effective stalking!

The Now Show, 9 April 2009

For various reasons, including being unlucky in the ballot for tickets, I had not been to see a recording of The Now Show since last July so it was a welcome return this week.

The routine was largely unaltered from the previous visits and the evening started with a pizza at the nearby Pizza Express. The only minor change here is that they have stopped doing the half bottle of Pinot Grigio so I had to have a large glass instead.

The combination of a slightly later start to the recording (it moved to 6:45 from 6:15) and being able to get away early due to the school holidays combined nicely to promote us from our usual 50th in the queue outside Broadcasting House to the very front!

There were slight panics when one of us lost their ticket and I realized that I had brought my penknife with me but a security guard found the ticket and his colleagues failed to find the knife hidden amongst my keys (this works with most airlines too!) so it all worked out fine.

Things were even better when we went to the usual holding room as there were more seats than before and we were able to get four right next to the exit. However, the temporary bar there still charges £3.20 for a 33cl plastic bottle of Grolsch.

The evening dipped when, just before we went into the theatre, we were informed that the first four rows had been reserved for production guests so despite being in the front of the queue outside we found ourselves in the 5th row. This was disappointing (I have already written to the BBC about this) but the upside was that it did allow me to take more photos than usual during the recording.

But the whole point of the evening was the show itself and that did not disappoint at all. After playing (good) reserves for the last few weeks The Now Show team was back to full strength with the return of Hugh Dennis and Marcus Brigstocke to play alongside the other regulars, Steve Punt, Jon Holmes, Mitch Benn and Laura Shavin, and all were on top form to provide over an hour of top entertainment. Listeners to the programme and the podcast will have to settle for the 29 minute edited version.

The proof of a good show is whether you would go and see it again and despite having seen The Now Show several times in the last few years I am already looking forward to going again in a couple of weeks.

My podcasts (April 2009)

I usually download the latest iTunes software as it becomes available but then do not play around with any new features so I have no idea how long I have been able to display my podcasts like this.

I like this style as it makes it easy to see how many and which sorts of podcasts I listen to. It also clearly shows a not unexpected fondness for BBC programs.




This is how I categorise what I listen to:

• Fun (11) Archers, Armstrong and Miller, The Bugle, Composer of the Week, Dave Weekly Vodcast, David Mitchell's SoapBox, Friday Night Comedy, Marvel Podcasts, Car Pool, Stephen Fry's PODGRAMS, Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone,
  
• Current Affairs (8) Analysis, Crossing Continents, Demos Project, From Our Own Correspondent, John Pienaar's Political Review, RSA Events, This Week in Africa, Weekly Westminster Review,
• Science and Nature (7) Discovery, Farming Today, Material World, One Planet, Machine of the Week, Science in Action, TED Talks,
  
• Business (6) The Bottom Line, Harvard Business IdeaCast, Harvard Business Video IdeaCast, Money Box, World of Business, The Systems Thinking Review,
  
• Information Technology (5) Click On, Digital Planet, IBM developerWorks, IBM Institute for Business Value, Ideas from IBM,
  
• Social Sciences (3) In our Time, More or Less, Thinking Allowed,

Luckily not all of these podcasts are broadcast at the same time (i.e. most of them have breaks) so keeping on top of my listening schedule is just about possible, provided I do plenty of walking and/or commuting!

SAHB live at the BBC

A new Sensational Alex Harvey Band album is always a good thing, even if the adjective "new" applies to the release and not the recording.

This collection of various live recordings made for the BBC dates back to 1972 and includes performances for In Concert and The Old Grey Whistle Test.

This is vintage SAHB in every sense of the word giving us excellent versions of many of their early classics, including St. Anthony, Framed, The Faith Healer, Next, Give My Compliments To The Chef (my favourite) and Delilah (not typical but it has to be there).

We are also treated to three rare songs, i.e. ones that I am not familiar with. These are Giddy Up A Ding Dong, Pick It Up And Kick It and Smouldering.

But the important thing about this album is that it is live and it is from when SAHB were in their prime. The songs are delivered in distinctive Alex Harvey style with loads of drama which makes them different from the studio versions and from the other live versions from the same era.

SAHB are still playing live (and are still very much worth seeing live) but it is nice to revisit their formative years and this album is a good way to do that.

Hustle series #5

After four series of the Hustle in four years (2004 to 2007) we had to wait two years for series 5 which made its return bit of a surprise.

In the meantime many of the cast had gone to do other things, such as Wanted, Dexter and Bonekickers, so when the crew is reassembled it is with two new members but we also had the return of Adrian Lester as Mickey Stone, the leader of the gang.

The imprint of the series creator, Tony Jordan, is clear and he set the mood for the new series by writing the first episode.

Hustle is a simple concept superbly executed. Each episode is a separate story where they find a deserving victim and con them out of some serious money. But there is always more to it than that and each con is full of twists and surprises. The mood is very much like the wonderful Saint books by Leslie Charteris where wrongs are unwronged with careful planning and panache.

For some reason the BBC seems to have a "no repeats" rule for Hustle so I will have a long wait until the DVD comes out in early 2010 before I can watch this series again. Now that is something to look forward to.