One for cricket lovers: if you didn't hear the Archive Hour for the 50th Anniversary of Test Match Special on Saturday, then may I suggest you Listen Again for a real aural treat.
Johnners, Aggers, Blowers and CMJ - and the incomparable John Arlott - all contribute their voices to a wonderfully English feast of cricket, trivia and cakes. Switch on the radio, shut your eyes, and you can almost smell the grass and hear the thwack of leather on willow. Magic stuff!
As they often say - on radio, the pictures are so much better than on the TV - as this programme demonstrates in spades. The only annoyance is that Rory Bremner provides some entirely superfluous and distracting impressions in his narration - when the real voices do it so much better and more subtly. Apart from that, top marks BBC.
Warning: includes the (in)famous "Legover Incident" at the end - so make sure you are not drinking tea at the time, or snorting will inevitably result!
Contrast with:
The oikish TV commentary on Formula 1: lots of shouting, with semi-coherent speech and often tedious rambling - all heat and no light. Because the brilliant newcomer Lewis Hamilton came second on Sunday at Monaco, the gormless pundits are already forecasting doom and disaster. I really do despise the way they set people up and then gleefully tear them down again.
Look to the gentlemen of TMS for some inspiration, you numpties!
29/05/07 @ 10:16