Listening to the OLD BBC

Me ^ | 2/10/2004

[ArcLight]

I subscribe to the Live365 Internet radio service, which plays thousands of audio streams of every description. My favorites are the ones with old-time radio dramas. But one of the channels is currently running an old BBC radio adaptation of the classic science-fiction novel The Day of the Triffids.

It's a most extraordinary experience, like going back in time. The show is very well done, marvelously scary. And yet, there's a sober, good-natured solidity to it that is synonymous with what Americans of a certain age naturally associate with Britain. No matter how intense or horrifying the situation, the hero always responds with good sense, decency and wry wit. There's not a trace of the snide, snarky pseudo-hipness that saturates so much Brit and Yank entertainment these days. You find yourself thinking that GK Chesterton or Arthur Conan Doyle would have thoroughly enjoyed these shows.

[expatpat]

Watch out for "The Goon Show", a nutty comic show which gave Peter Sellers his start, and included Spike Milligan.

[mass55th]

I subscribe to Live365 too, and almost always listen to channels like "Rat Patrol Radio," "Hollywood Canteen," and "World WarII American Radio." Every so often I turn on one of the channels that play old-time mysteries or comedy programs. Last night I listened to Fibber Magee and Molly.

[Tanniker Smith]

I heard that one ages ago. Loved it.
I have a collection of OTR, but I never seem to have time to listen to anything. Audiotapes take up so much room. Most of the rest is on mp3 format, burned on CDs, but I haven't gotten around to getting an mp3 player yet.

TS
(... return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear . . .)

[eddie willers]

The Day of the Triffids.

Not a bad movie, either.

[SedVictaCatoni]

You're not listening to the old BBC - you're listening to the old Britain.

[ArcLight]

Day of the Triffids was a terrible movie!! :-)

[ArcLight]

Live365 does carry the Goon Show, and I do listen. It's so cool!

[lambo]

If you like that, permit me to suggest you try to get your hands on some videos of Dad's Army. It's not science fiction, it's a comedy about a small Home Guard troop in WWII, staffed by those too old (or in the case of one character, an only child of a single mother) to serve in the regular forces. Quite funny yet at the same time sweet and sentimental, with very memorable characters. Lots of good sense and English honour, too. Made in the late 60s and early 70s, it's supposedly still the most popular thing on TV when it's rerun in Britain, which ought to give us all some hope.

Just a suggestion.

By the way, can I assume from your name that you're a CPFer, or am I misinterpreting?

[Winniesboy]

Difficult as it may be to believe, quality radio drama like this is still being made by the BBC, and can be heard almost every day on Radio 4. Like other of the better aspects of the BBC's output, this is rarely exported, so it's understandable that people in the US and elsewhere get a rather distorted idea of the current BBC.

[ArcLight]

I have no idea what a CPFer is; I got the handle from the title of a book I enjoyed. I am, by trade, a newspaper journalist.

[ArcLight]

I'm glad to hear that, Winniesboy. But I wasn't just praising Day of the Triffids because it's well-done. I was also pointing up the attitude of the program, the way it takes for granted a certain type of hero possessed of a cool, self-deprecating decency that you just don't see much of in the movies or on TV any more. Are they still doing shows like that? If so, where can I go to listen?

[dljordan]

I built my first shortwave recv' (Heathkit) in 58' and immediately started listening to the BBC dramas. I loved them! They have news that you don't get here in the states.

[Winniesboy]

If you go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/ you can listen again to most of the radio drama broadcast in the previous week. There's a daily afternoon play of about an hour, longer (usually more serious) plays on Friday and Saturday evenings, and a classic serial on Sundays. The output is so big that of course it's uneven (although the average quality is remarkably high). I won't pretend that there isn't plenty of the contemporary sensibility you decry, but there's still plenty of good period material too. I think you'd particularly like the classic serials, which are usually adaptations of classic English novels. Although BBC Radio 4 is the main radio drama channel, on Sunday evenings there's also always a serious, evening-length drama on the highbrow music channel BBC Radio 3.

[lambo]

Sorry, my mistake. It's nothing derogatory, though.

"Arc Flashlight" is a tiny, high-tech company that makes minuscule, extraordinarily bright, computer controlled flashlights. "CPF" is CandlePower Forums, a place where flashlight lunatics congregate. Nicest bunch of people on the internet, too. (Face it, Freepers can be nasty to one another at times.)

Actually, being a bit of a literary hound myself, I like the pedigree of your name better. And I do recommend Dad's Army to you for a taste of an England that's now lost in the mists.

Radio Four is also a good choice for what you're after. Though pulling in the World Service on shortwave, back when the World Service wasn't the tangle of rough accents and bolshie opinion it is today, was much more fun than clicking a mouse.

[ArcLight]

Flashlight lunatics? I'd never have imagined there were avid flashlight collectors. It is amazing what people obsess over, innit?

[lambo]

Takes all kinds. The really peculiar thing is that CPF is more of a conservative board than FreeRepublic.