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.)

[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.

[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 :-)

[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?

[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.