Weekending Posted Wed May 31 11:30:58 BST 2000 by Jon

I started listening in 1983, got bored during the mid-80s, but came back when it was really good in 87-88 (when Newman & Baddiel were writing, I think). I lost interest altogether in 1991, when it had gone shit again.

But I did hear the greatest Weekending moment ever, which was actually on the 'Today' programme in 1996. Norman Tebbit was being interviewed about media coverage of the Major government, or BBC bias, or something, when he suddenly put on a tone of mock surprise and said he was surprised by what he had heard on "the supposedly witty show Weekending". Then quite angrily he declared: "The people who make that show have done damn all with their lives!" I listened to the next edition, they did a brief sketch about it. I think that's the only time a politician has ever hit back at a topical, satirical comedy act, in recent times anyway.

Weekending was cack in the mid-80s because they looked bad following the Derek Jameson "East End boy done bad" sketch in '84, or whenever, and so worried more about upsetting people. When Robert Maxwell brought out the execrable "Not Private Eye" following his libel victory against Hislop&co., Jameson was given a platform to whinge once again about the toffee-nosed Oxbridge satirists who'd traduced him.

I've heard all the great R4 moments of recent history: Anna Ford referring to Simon Pemberton of 'The Archers' as "a shit", despite him not existing; John Humphries getting genuinely angry in a feature about the Brookside cancer storyline; Janet Daley getting fed up with Robert Elms on 'The Moral Maze' (that one wasn't so great, just tiresome). I missed Paxman Vs. Kissinger on 'Start the Week', sadly. Perhaps they could all be brought on a BBC tape?

Subject: Re: Weekending [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Dolores Haze on Wed May 31 21:53:51 BST 2000:

I remember "Did you threaten to overrule him?" became a 'cult' quote in our house after one particularly brilliant Paxman interrogation.

Subject: Re: Weekending [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Ben on Tue Jun 6 20:51:19 BST 2000:

They really ought to bring back Weekending - unless they already have - as it was fantastic, does Radio 4 still do comedy late at night? I used to be an avid follower a few years back - I listened from The World Tonight al the way through to the early hours cos I loved the World Service - I was never into the teenage rebellion thing!

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