Side by Side no longer

St Léger
Yesterday's weather: beautiful again 25 degrees

In days gone by (this is another confession), we used to 'take' The Telegraph (it's a newspaper that is incredibly British - for my non-British readers). Why does one 'take' the Telegraph but 'buy' the Mirror?

After I scanned it and read the main news stories since I never had time to read the whole thing, I would do the crossword and scan the obituraries in case I had missed the passing of someone interesting. Obituaries are usually and of necessity very dry, dull pieces and after checking that the Prime Minister of the day wasn't in there I would move on to the back page (crossword).

Today's Telegraph on line has the obituary of a British institution and I hope he will enjoy being remembered as such. Ned Sherrin died yesterday from throat cancer. His obituary (read here if you are interested) is one of the nicest I have read.

His life in radio and television began the year in which I was born and the obituary is full of references to programmes I have listened to, films I have watched and people I had forgotten about. Names of well-loved actors and comedians I remember so well from growing up in a home where the radio and television were a source of entertainment and education. Marty Feldman, Frankie Howerd, Sir Michael Hordern and Dinsdale Landen, the names bring to my mind images and the sound of their voices, laughter and drama. From 'That Was the Week That Was' (TW3, as it was known) to 'Loose Ends', his voice seemed to pop up somewhere.

Hopefully we will be enjoying a week or so of interesting repeats.

Enter the confessional (Part 2)

St Vincent:
Yesterday's weather: Miserable but not too much rain.

I am proud to admit that I have never watched more than the occasional, accidental five minutes of Eastenders. I have never, ever, watched Coronation Street or Holyoaks and haven't watched Emmerdale since Amos Brierly was running the Woolpack and Annie Sugden was ruling the roost on the farm. That was when I was home feeding twin babies at lunch times and was a captive audience.

I admit to a couple of years of Neighbours; at lunch time after playschool, it sent the youngest to sleep. Kylie and Jason were the stars and Mrs Mangle was the local busybody. I liked Mike, especially when he went on to star in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Now we have become accustomed to turning on Radio 4 at 7 pm local time, 6 pm English time. We listen to the news followed by the 'funny' at 6.30. The confession is that the 'funny' is always followed by The Archers, and I fear I may be falling into a trap here. The current storylines are driving me mad so I hope I will be able to get out of this addiction before it is too late.

Apparently Radio 4 is about to be challenged by Channel 4 Radio, known as 4 Radio (confusing, eh?). 4 Radio is an internet only radio station at the moment and to be honest everything on there at the moment is very out of date. Channel 4 have now been given a group of digital licences and plan to launch their rival station to Radio 4 this autumn. There is no indication yet as to the sort of programmes they will be playing on this all-talk station yet but I doubt they could attract stalwart listeners away from the Today programme (John Humphries being argumentative), Desert Island Discs (Kirsty Young somehow doesn't do it as well as Sue Lawley) or my favourite funnies - Just a Minute (how old exactly IS Nicholas Parsons?), I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue, The News Quiz; or, indeed The Archers.

Based on their experience with Brookside, they could have a Liverpool version of the Archers - but I won't fall into any Boris Johnson type traps and suggest a storyline.