h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Podcasts

Many times, here on hootoo, I must have said that I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts - almost exclusively those from the BBC. They bring me a bit of home directly into my lugholes and some of them are very informative. Many of them are just inane comedy, but I listen anyway.

If shipwrecked on a desert island and only allowed to save one podcast from a tidal wave, I would choose the Kermode and Mayo. I'm not really an avid film-goer, so don't ask why. Loads of their listeners write in and say they don't get to the cinema much, but they love listening to the podcast. The film reviewing is chaotic - you never know what film is actually being described/discussed and the banter is way below any standards set by comic double acts whose timing is professional and whose delivery is not so garbled. Yet that podcast is addictive. Possibly it's the Mayo/Kermode chemistry.

If I want to know proper stuff about films, I listen to the Film Programme - also available as a podcast, and far more coherent and in-depth.

The World Service and Radio 4 have great programmes on books - the appetite is whetted for far more books than I have time to read.

Round Britain quiz and Counterpoint (Ooh Paul Gambaccini - who'da guessed?) are informative and also fairly fast-moving quizzes. (Have you ever counted how many actual questions get asked in a single programme of "Millionaire"? You don't get much knowledge per minute there.)

Another favourite is the Daily Bacon - Richard Bacon seems to have found his niche in radio interviews. He's rather good at it and has made waves with some things he's extracted from his interviewees.

Of course, no self-respecting Radio 4 listener would be without "In our time" *waves to Z* (On comparing mp3 players with Z once, we found that we both had umpteen IOT's stored up for listening to)

So that's how I keep up with how English is developing (Imagine how I would speak if I had not had any contact since I left in 1976.)

At the moment, I'm about 6 months behind. That doesn't matter, because scientific developments (did I mention all the science podcasts?) take that long to get to Germany anyway, so I'm not behind when speaking to people on an everyday basis.

As far as the films are concerned, 6 months' delay doesn't matter because I can now go out and get the DVD if I like the sound of a film that's been discussed. And then watch the film in English.

And best of all - I get to sleep much better with Melvyn Bragg, Tom Sutcliffe or Jenni Murray (did I mention the Woman's Hour podcasts?) droning on in my ears.

[Amy P]

I wish I could do any of those podcasts.

I do one. Mike Harding's Folk Show, mainly because he was so ignominiously discarded by the BBC in favour of Mark Radcliffe.

He does a great 'hour and a bit of folk, acoustic and blues music' that I tend to listen to in the bath, and lasts just long enough for a complete head to toe ablution and full dressing event.

Maybe a little tmi, but if you fancy Mike Harding's choice, here's the link:

http://www.mikehardingfolkshow.com

MMF

The download procedure for that seems very complicated. I don't have any gadgets, so I can't use i-tunes, and the other ones seem to re-direct to itunes as well.

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