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Another interesting looking one on BBC sounds. I haven’t listened to it yet.

Diane Morgan Believes in Ghosts

Diane Morgan -famed for her investigative
powers as Philomena Cunk - trawls the BBC
archive for the best real-life tales of ghost
hunting, hauntings and unexplained phenomena,
which takes us across England, Ireland, Scotland
and Wales - as well as on a tour around the
bowels of BBC Broadcasting House.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b09c0rr8
 
Just found some good Radio 4 plays.

This one: Uncanny - Case 2 The Hanging Room, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001146m has the little 128kbps download button too. Case 3 is on Wednesday 03 November and is:

The Todmorden UFO​

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011bgy

And this play, with an appearance from Neil Gaiman:

Lud-in-the-Mist​

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011458

Beguiling fantasy classic by Hope Mirrlees about a country bordered by the sinister but alluring Land of Faerie. Dramatised by Joy Wilkinson.

And this one:

Lolly Willowes​

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001140k

Lolly Willowes lives a quietly dull life with her over bearing brother Henry and his family, but when she decides to move to the countryside she discovers a darker calling: witchcraft.
 
Now that the dark winter nights are here, it's time for some M.R. James
Monday 8th November at 22:00 on BBC 4
A Warning to the Curious starring Peter Vaughan
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011fcf

That is a brilliant piece of TV drama, it's amazing what they did just by visiting some isolated locations late at night, so simple, so effective, so creepy.
 
Archive Hour tonight on BBC Radio 4, 8 o'clock, all about the fake factoids that get shared endlessly on social media, where they came from and why loads of people believe them even though they're not true. An hour seems too short!
 
Not a reminder as such, but if you have Sky and can take up the offer of one year free of Discovery + it may be worth a look.

I finish work at 1 in the afternoon on Saturdays, ,y wife works most Saturday afternoons so I usually enjoy the peace and quiet with a brew and a good book.

I had a look through discovery + and watched a documentary on the Highgate Vampire that I thought was worth a watch.

I also watched Jack & Kellly Osbourne spend a couple of nights alone on the Queen Mary. That was trash TV that washed over me, but it was light entertainment anyway.
 
Another interesting looking one on BBC sounds. I haven’t listened to it yet.

Diane Morgan Believes in Ghosts

Diane Morgan -famed for her investigative
powers as Philomena Cunk - trawls the BBC
archive for the best real-life tales of ghost
hunting, hauntings and unexplained phenomena,
which takes us across England, Ireland, Scotland
and Wales - as well as on a tour around the
bowels of BBC Broadcasting House.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b09c0rr8
Did anyone listen to this? I did but it’s so long it took a few sittings. What did you think?
 
Did anyone listen to this? I did but it’s so long it took a few sittings. What did you think?

I did yes, thank you for posting about it on here. I liked it, there was a good mixture of tales and I found it interesting listening to the old recordings. I'd like to listen to similar shows where they bring up old stories from archives. I also listened to it in a few sittings due to the length!
 
Archive Hour tonight on BBC Radio 4, 8 o'clock, all about the fake factoids that get shared endlessly on social media, where they came from and why loads of people believe them even though they're not true. An hour seems too short!

This was great, incidentally, they only had time to cover four photographs that became memes, but it's fascinating to hear how they'd been appropriated. One was appropriated twice, first as a British colonial officer taking advantage of a slave, then corrected to a French colonial officer having fun with a local. Turned out it was a Greek businessman arseing about in the First World War (probably).

The WWI photos hoax was insane that anyone went to those lengths. I'm also disappointed Churchill never said "If you find yourself going through Hell, keep going." I've been saying that one for years...

Anyway, here it is, well worth an hour of your time:
Link
 
There’s some good things if you have Amazon Prime. I rewatched Crooked House again yesterday cracking stuff. MR James Number 13 looks interesting as well. The Ghost Inside My Child is a very interesting series too.
 
The Hidden World of the Motorway

Author and naturalist Helen Macdonald embarks on a clockwise loop around the M25 to discover if there is a wild side to Britain's busiest road

Interesting programme about motorway edge zones. specifically the M25, liminal spaces between them & ‘useful’ land, & the wildlife found in them. Turns out they’re very wildlife diverse as they’re basically left alone.

Many items of interest - Waltham Abbey ex-Royal Ordnance facility, Epping Forest, & an area which was a rubbish dump until 4 years ago, now regrown & a wildlife habitat, J.G.Ballard, & much more

At Rothampsted Research, a field has been the subject of a continuous experiment since the 1800s when it was divided into segments & various different fertilisers used on each to find the most effective, originally for hay production. On one segment no fertiliser has been used since the start & has been found to be the most diverse in terms of species found in it. Other segments treated differently had ‘better' grass but less other plants.

Fungi growth shown to have interesting properties & amazing moss regeneration from seemingly dry & dead to sprouting. There’s an segment with model electric cars rotating on a track, programmed with either ’selfish’ or ‘co-operative’ modes when one car breaks down & stops, blocking the lane. As expected, the co-operative mode is much more efficient in keeping traffic moving.

The man who was in charge of planting for the northern part of the M25 is interviewed. A lot of planning went into it.

Also archive documents from late 40s with road planning, post-war reconstruction laid out. The M25 was basically planned then & pretty much follows the route they laid out.

Well worth a watch.
 
The Hidden World of the Motorway



Interesting programme about motorway edge zones. specifically the M25, liminal spaces between them & ‘useful’ land, & the wildlife found in them. Turns out they’re very wildlife diverse as they’re basically left alone.

Many items of interest - Waltham Abbey ex-Royal Ordnance facility, Epping Forest, & an area which was a rubbish dump until 4 years ago, now regrown & a wildlife habitat, J.G.Ballard, & much more

At Rothampsted Research, a field has been the subject of a continuous experiment since the 1800s when it was divided into segments & various different fertilisers used on each to find the most effective, originally for hay production. On one segment no fertiliser has been used since the start & has been found to be the most diverse in terms of species found in it. Other segments treated differently had ‘better' grass but less other plants.

Fungi growth shown to have interesting properties & amazing moss regeneration from seemingly dry & dead to sprouting. There’s an segment with model electric cars rotating on a track, programmed with either ’selfish’ or ‘co-operative’ modes when one car breaks down & stops, blocking the lane. As expected, the co-operative mode is much more efficient in keeping traffic moving.

The man who was in charge of planting for the northern part of the M25 is interviewed. A lot of planning went into it.

Also archive documents from late 40s with road planning, post-war reconstruction laid out. The M25 was basically planned then & pretty much follows the route they laid out.

Well worth a watch.
Just watched it, a really fascinating programme.
 
Welcome To Our Village Please Invade Carefully is starting soon on BBC4 EX Monday I
think but it will be on BBC Sounds once it starts, it's about Aliens that invade and cut
off a village with a force field, the villagers set about taking the water out of them
led by Katrina Lyons, a 30-something woman who is the pee taker in chief.

Below is a link to the series.

https://archive.org/details/Welcome...r+Village,+Please+Invade+Carefully+S00E01.mp3
 
Another interesting looking one on BBC sounds. I haven’t listened to it yet.

Diane Morgan Believes in Ghosts

Diane Morgan -famed for her investigative
powers as Philomena Cunk - trawls the BBC
archive for the best real-life tales of ghost
hunting, hauntings and unexplained phenomena,
which takes us across England, Ireland, Scotland
and Wales - as well as on a tour around the
bowels of BBC Broadcasting House.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b09c0rr8
Thank you for the reminder. I was wrongly put off by the Philomena Cunk mention as I'm not a fan and mistakenly thought this programme would be in that vein.
It's actually brilliant. :cool:
 
I like Diane Morgan. Her characterisation of 'Philomena Cunk' is deliberately portraying her as an inquisitive thicko.
 
Didn't learn much new from the Stonehenge prog yesterday. Will try Medieval Dead on Blaze (63) tonight at 9 pm - archeological digs at burials sites from Battle of Agincourt.
 
David Baddiel vs social media, tonight at 9pm on BBC2. High hopes for this one, his last doc about Holocaust denial was excellent (and I bet there's a crossover here).
 
A Ghost Story for Christmas on BBC2 at 22.30 on Christmas Eve is The Mezzotint
1923. Edward Williams, gentleman and amateur golfer, lives an untroubled life as the curator of a small university museum. His speciality is the topography of the British Isles. So when an art dealer sends him details of an interesting engraving - a mezzotint - of an old country house, he’s intrigued.

When the picture arrives, however, it seems perfectly ordinary - until Williams notices a figure in the picture where there was none before. A cloaked figure, with a skull-like head and legs that are horribly thin. Soon, within the mezzotint, the figure seems to be on the move across the moonlit lawn towards the house with murderous intent.

Long-forgotten secrets rise to the surface as Williams and his friends summon all the rational forces at their command to confront the impossible.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012xmb
 
Eric Morecambe's son discovered an episode in the loft, some months ago, that was previously thought to be lost, and it has had preservation/restoration work and will be broadcast Christmas Day, preceded by a classic episode.

Morecambe and Wise: Rediscovered episode to air on BBC Two
The newly colourised episode of the Morecambe and Wise Show will be broadcast on BBC Two at 19:45 GMT on Christmas Day.
It will be preceded at 19:00 GMT by the pair's 1971 Christmas show, featuring Andre Previn, Glenda Jackson and Shirley Bassey.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-59599741
 
A Ghost Story for Christmas on BBC2 at 22.30 on Christmas Eve is The Mezzotint

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012xmb
While I'm looking forward to this, being a big James fan, it'll be the usual parade of harrumphing male academics. :rolleyes:

Can't be helped as that was James' world; but if he was imaginative enough to conjure up the various ghosts and demons we love so much you'd think he'd be able to scrape together a woman who did more than serve tea and gossip. :chuckle:
 
While I'm looking forward to this, being a big James fan, it'll be the usual parade of harrumphing male academics. :rolleyes:

Can't be helped as that was James' world; but if he was imaginative enough to conjure up the various ghosts and demons we love so much you'd think he'd be able to scrape together a woman who did more than serve tea and gossip. :chuckle:

Funnily enough, I was literally just thinking about this. No doubt the filmmakers will - yet again - make those gentlemen far more snooty and harrumphing than James ever did in the first instance. I mean, they are clearly of a certain social background, but generally far more even handed and affable than later adaptations allow. (Worth pointing out that, in the original, The Mezzotint's protagonist asks for the opinion of a college servant upon the matter of the picture in question - an action which later adaptations render unlikely, given their tendency to add exclusivity and aloofness to the main characters; I also seem to recall that the protagonist in the not so long ago adaptation of Number 13 was a stuffy and rude arse with little resemblance to the rather garrulous original.)

And if it's any consolation, when they are in fact present, James' women - whether servants or served - are almost always right, and more than capable of holding their own in the face of contradiction. As also, in fact, are virtually all his working class characters of either sex.

I've been listening to an awful lot of classic ghost stories recently - having discovered the excellent Bitesized Audio Classics on YouTube. Great fun - but one of the things I've learned from the experience is how good James really was compared to so many other genre writers of the late Victorian and Edwardian era, and also - surprising given much of the criticism levelled at him - how even handed, in comparison, he is as an author towards the less advantaged. And that includes female authors of (roughly) the period.

With the proviso that he needs to be seen within the context of era and genre, I think James is much more balanced in his approach to women than he is given credit for, even compared some well-known female writers of the genre, who could be much more snooty and condescending to members of their own sex than James ever was, and some of whom tended to lapse into the same clichés as their male counterparts: women being either gobby slatterns who were no better than they should be, or radiant innocents who would likely die of the bloody flux should they inadvertently glimpse their own private parts.

Unless they are clearly a bad lot – as in Karswell’s household - servants are never insulted, belittled, or mistrusted (or, in the latter case, when they are, the mistrust is shown to be misplaced, and acknowledged as such by the protagonist – it always ends up being about their fallibility, not anyone else's).

There are definitely some broad strokes used, and some comic value squeezed out of these characters (usually based around language and the use thereof) – but never, it seems to me, at the cost of anyone’s dignity. And although not drawn in any depth – these are short stories after all – there is often enough to suggest that the individuals involved have as much of an inner life as the dusty academics they cross paths with. They might be clichés – to a certain extent all the characters are – but none of them seem to me to be of the worst or laziest types. To my mind James had a Dickensian sympathy with them – he didn’t put them on a pedestal, but they definitely get a better billing than, for instance, Conan Doyle who – if he was anything like his main characters – was a crashing snob when it came to anyone below a certain social standing. And Lovecraft – my God, a man who clearly and utterly despised the tired the poor and the huddled masses. And, while we’re at it, compare James’ protagonists to the arrogant know-all Carnacki (and, to a certain extent, Blackwood’s John Silence); the former are much more fallible and human - and indeed humane - their author, I firmly believe, much more self aware.
 
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