Now here you are with your faith and your Peter Pan advice

[venta]

Oh that explains it. I've been struggling for some time to work out why I'd heard of Benedict Cumberbatch (surely the most unwieldy name in showbiz) prior to his playing Sherlock. IMDB didn't really offer any clues. Anyway, it turns out he played the rather inept Captain Martin Crief in Cabin Pressure

Cabin Pressure is a II. When I was regularly commuting to work by car my commute often involved being in the car during the thirty minutes between 1830 and 1900, so I often caught the half six comedy slot.

Grade I programmes in the comedy slot include The News Quiz, The Now Show, Old Harry's Game, or anything featuring either Mark Steel or Jeremy Hardy. They're the shows where you make sure you leave work on time so you'll definitely hear them.

Grade II programmes are the sort you listen to if you happen to be in the car. This covers a wide range of things - basically everything not I or III - and typically includes The Museum of Everything, Chain Reaction, The Party Party or anything featuring either Giles Wemmbley-Hogg or Shappi Khorsandi.

Grade III programmes are the ones where the instant they are announced you have to lunge for the off button. Severe cases require the operation of said off button to take precedence over driving safely. Grade IIIs include Count Arthur Strong, Rudy's Rare Records and various other sitcoms too dreary to recall.

Special cases of Grade III are The Archers and anything featuring Chris Moyles, though they feature in a different timeslot and on a different station, respectively.

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Good Lord. I guess there will be no more Cabin Pressure now he's a megastar, alas. (I'm not sure where I'd put it on my grading scale; it's something I catch on Radio 7 if I happen to notice it's there.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes - I originally wrote that BC "plays" the captain, since as far as I'm aware the series is ongoing, then amended it to "played" since I doubted he would again!

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

His name really sounds like something from a Dickens novel, doesn't it? You expect him to be running either an orphanage or a shady criminal gang.

[venta.livejournal.com]

He does sound Dickensian - though I think I'd place him either in the orphanage or oppressed by the criminal gang.

Or maybe he could be one of Trollope's weak-chinned clergy, that might suit.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Noooooooo! He's clearly older than Dickensian in my head... But then, I'm forearmed with the useless information that is: When Samuel Taylor Coleridge ran away from Cambridge and joined the 'regiment of horse' (Royal Dragoons, 1793) he gave his name as Silas Tomkin Cumberbatch.

The name's variously given as Tomken or Tomkyn, Comberback or Comberbache, but at least one contemporary wrote it as Cumberbatch. So when I heard of BC, that's what I thought of first.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking of that book The Myserious Benedict Society and adding 'Cumberbatch' in.

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

It seems I only listen to Radio 4 comedy these days by only going to watch it be recorded (most recently the Now Show) which is a shame as it's mostly glorious

Mainlyn though, I'm commenting to big-up your Conor Oberst listening :-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

The Conor Oberst really isn't down to my fabulous musical taste, but being in the right place at the right time ;) I recently went to one of the gigs Wichita records organised to celebrate their 10th birthday - I went to see Young Legionnaire, but all comers got a surprisingly high-quality goodie bag from Wichita.

It had three full-length albums in it (Conor Oberst, Peter Björn and John, and Euros Childs) and all are actually really rather good.

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

Still don't understand why you write software instead of being a music journo...

[venta.livejournal.com]

If I wrote about music for my job, I doubt I'd write software in my spare time. And since I do actually enjoy both, I figure I have the best of both at present.

Also, getting people to pay you to be a music journalist is quite tricky. I have made occasional forays into doing it in various amateur ways, with quite staggering lack of success :)

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I'm like this re: motorcycle journalism.

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

well, music is nearly always accidentally stumbled upon, the fact that you found it worth listening to is a good enough indication of taste for me :-)

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Which category would you put Bleak Expectations into? Because Benedict Cumberbatch sounds like exactly the kind of person that you'd expect to find accompanying the evil villain of the piece, Mr Gently Benevolent.

With you entirely on your grading of Count Arthur Strong, though. Do Armando Ianucci vehicles end up in I or II?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Oh, I rather enjoyed Bleak Expectations (though it's now bugging me that I can't remember Mr Parsimonious' forename), I'll give it a I. Armando Ianucci is quite variable, actually - some episodes of his Charm Offensive would definitely have made it into I, but others have been a bit bland.

When he was involved in election coverage earlier this year, it totally threw me because he doesn't look at all the way he sounds like (in particular, he was a lot older than I expected). See also Milton Jones, who sounds much taller, thinner and besuited than he actually is.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

I've never been that impressed by Milton Jones, I must admit.

Hut 33 was another I, though.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Blimey, Hut 33 was firmly Grade II for me.

I do like a nice bit of Milton Jones, though. Not too often, admittedly, but now and again.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Ah, the joy of difference. Milton Jones was more a II, tending somewhat to III for me at times.

Then again, Just a Minute is a III for me, as well (at least, since the demise of Clement Freud).

[venta.livejournal.com]

A couple of weeks ago, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue had a particularly fabulous parody of Just a Minute. Jack Dee (still surprisingly good as the new Humph) in particular was great.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Bah. Damnit, I think I missed that one.

[uitlander]

I was at the recording for that. It was jaw droppingly brilliant.

[venta.livejournal.com]

it's now bugging me that I can't remember Mr Parsimonious' forename

I eventually looked it up to avoid wasting more work time thinking about it - Mr Skinflint Parsimonious. Hmm. Weird. Doesn't actually sound all that familiar, really.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

I don't think his forename got mentioned as often as Mr Benevolent's, though.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I don't really recognise your description of radio 4 at all, think I must listen to it at different times! Although yes, they do still have Any Answers. On a Friday night, too, when if I'm in the car I'm probably going away for the weekend and feeling like something nice and cheerful. Radio 1's schtick is "the weekend starts here" with Pete Tong... and radio 4 has Any Answers. Bah.

I think the god-awful programme must have been Loose Ends, because that's what Ned Sherrin was famous for (I think!) but I never heard it.

My listening in the last decade or so has largely been limited to commuting times, so (various) Today (not great, but informative and if nothing else yelling at John Humphries wakes me up), the serialised book (not bad if you can catch it regularly), and Woman's Hour which I can tolerate. And in the evening PM, the news, and the half six comedy slot. Admittedly followed by The Archers, but later redeemed by Front Row.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I always assumed that surname was a contraction of "cucumber patch", but apparently it means "living in a valley with a stream". Pity.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

He was good in The Last Enemy a year or two ago. Playing a socially-inept genius, as it happens.