(Places hands below table, Young Ones-style...)

If that previous thread is hinting that you think 'Santa' is me, you're wrong. I do agree with every word 'Santa' says, and I've already made my views quite plain, and I don't need an alias to say it.

Why are you so frightened by the first genuine hint of opnion to appear on here in years?

Frightened of genuine opinion?

No.

Frightened of someone who wishes brutal retribution on someone, just because they produce a radio show they don't like?

I'm shitting bricks mate...

> Smells distinctly SOTCAA to me

You must of worn your nose away then.

I think it was one of the best things written on the forum so far, and yes it does sound very SOTCAA, doesn't neccessarily mean it is though, just because someone can write a long informed opinion on something.

And I doubr whoever wrote it literally means people like Boothby Graffoe or his producer should have their legs broken literally, just in the metaphoric sense for their shoddy work, shite talentless arse lickers are getting far too high in the showbiz ladder of late, and someone is quite welcome to voice their opinion on it however much you don't agree with it Nev. Just think about all the hateful material you produce on the 11 o clock show, that stuff is much more vile and pathetic than anything in that Boothby thread. Check your prejudice in.

Oh goody, Someone's made a caustic 110'Clock show remark.

Just when I thought things were getting predictable.

>I think it was one of the best things written on the forum so far, and yes it does sound very SOTCAA, doesn't neccessarily mean it is though, just because someone can write a long informed opinion on something.
>
>And I doubr whoever wrote it literally means people like Boothby Graffoe or his producer should have their legs broken literally, just in the metaphoric sense for their shoddy work, shite talentless arse lickers are getting far too high in the showbiz ladder of late, and someone is quite welcome to voice their opinion on it however much you don't agree with it Nev. Just think about all the hateful material you produce on the 11 o clock show, that stuff is much more vile and pathetic than anything in that Boothby thread. Check your prejudice in.

Steve, If you think I'm going to augue the toss with some 12 year old with snot dribbling out of his nose, you've got another think coming.

Oh great Nev, personal abuse now is it? I would love to just say you're a twat, but I don't know you therefore it is unjustified, judging people by a few off hand comments is not representational of anything. I think it's a perfectly fair argument that you're a complete hypocrit, whining about a tiny review on a internet forum which is certainly informed on its subject, because the person was actually at the recordings, which is probably as informed as you can get, other than being in the actual show. And writes some reasoned criticisms about it, including abusive comments on the demenor of the people involved, obviously not real threats, just terms to get across how angry their way of doing things makes the reviewer.

But then you scurry off and write for a nationally broadcast show whose entire premise is calling celebs and politicians twats basically with no case, you don't even give any reasons, "Oh here's John Prescott, and he's fucked up the economy so he's a twat.." but you don't even do that, you just say "John Prescott is a twat and he eats pies."
And don't say that's not true, at least 50% of the last few weeks gags have been the same fucking few jokes over and over, John Prescott eats pies, Cherie Blaire has a big mouth etc. How can you possible criticise an argued case for hateful comments, when you write for a show which has completely no argument behind it's hateful comments other than the awful barrel scraping of its 25+ talent inept writers , all just trying to squeeze as many swear words into a sentence as possible with a celeb's name stuck to the end.

I'm sure if you were an unconcerned 3rd part watching your show, you would think it was unbarably dreadful, but obviously, since you work for it, you're extremely biased, you can't even say, "Yes, it's shit, but I don't really have to try, and get fair wages in the meantime.." The only reason I brought up the 11ocs is because it is an obvious example of your hypocracy about that Booth review. And I don't have snot dripping from my nose, and I'm not 12, but I can see your name on the credits for the 11ocs, clear as day, which is a much better insult.

See, it's not very nice when people make assumptions about you, is it?

It wasn't very nice when the reviewer of the 'Big Booth' assumed Lucy was a lazy, cynical careerist intent on getting to telly and chucking out second-rate stuff because 'radio doesn't matter', when actually she is a dedicated hard-working producer committed to radio, who works harder on her shows than any other producer I know..?

It's not nice for you to assume that I worked on the 11O'Clock show to make every joke vindictive and cruel, a lot of people on this site know my work, and know that's not my style.

Incidently, Steve, I haven't worked on the show for a month. Check the credits if you don't believe me.


Don't assume things, Steve, you just end up looking stupid, mad or both...

>Don't assume things, Steve, you just end up looking stupid, mad or both...

Well, that's what you just did. You don't know that Steven is a twelve year old with snot dripping from his nose, so why state it? You used to post actual opinions on here, but that sort of knowledge-free personal assault is more like the pointless uninformed wank that Al Murray used to post on here. Back to the proper argument please.

That was the point I was making, now go back and read through it again.

Slowly.

>That was the point I was making, now go back and read through it again.
>
>Slowly.

Don't you patronise me you ignorant untalented cunt. Fuck off and write some jokes about Dudley Moore's brain disease, why don't you?

>It wasn't very nice when the reviewer of the 'Big Booth' assumed Lucy was a lazy, cynical careerist intent on getting to telly and chucking out second-rate stuff because 'radio doesn't matter', when actually she is a dedicated hard-working producer committed to radio, who works harder on her shows than any other producer I know..?

Nevy, can I suggest you go back and read the original posts by Dingwall's Ampersand. Slowly. Fucking Slowly.

>Don't assume things, Steve, you just end up looking stupid, mad or both...

Quiet

>Frightened of someone who wishes brutal retribution on someone, just because they produce a radio show they don't like?

Delighted that you took the line out of context, Nev, and ignored everything else in the article. The kicking was a prediction of how the BBC managers may behave to her over the steady flopping of 'The Big Booth 2' and her unprofessional remarks to the audience. It was more an echo of the comments about Clare earlier on.

If I really wanted to see someone gush blood out of every orifice on a stage, I would have to go to the National Theatre.

Read the article again. Slowly.

And no, I'm not a corpse. Now all you have to do is remove a couple of words from the previous sentence and claim that I am. Go on.
You're bound to anyway.

>
>
>And no, I'm not a corpse. Now all you have to do is remove a couple of words from the previous sentence and claim that I am. Go on.
>You're bound to anyway.

I never said you were a corpse. I said i wasn't 'Santa' read the postings.

>>And no, I'm not a corpse. Now all you have to do is remove a couple of words from the previous sentence and claim that I am. Go on.
>>You're bound to anyway.
>
>I never said you were a corpse. I said i wasn't 'Santa' read the postings.

"I do agree with every word 'Santa' says"

>>.
>
>Read the article again. Slowly.
>
Are you SERIOUS??? Civilizations rose and fell while I read it the last time.

>>
>
>>Don't assume things, Steve, you just end up looking stupid, mad or both...
>
>Quiet

That would have been very pithy if that had been the right word. Close though...

>See, it's not very nice when people make assumptions about you, is it?

Not when they are about completely unrelated subjects, if I made any comments about the mucus deposits in my nose and about pre-pubescent age, maybe your comment would be justified, but I didn't, therefore it is all just petty crap made to back up your argument, but doesn't, because it's completely unrelated.

Dingwall's Ampersand made assumptions on Lucy's motives from speaking directly to her about her producing, this is obviously a related topic and one can draw conclusions from this. Saying that Chris Morris is just "mad" and that she was embarassed for working on his Music show seems like ludicrous remarks, as well as the other comments she made as stated in the review. It seems most of the statements are completely valid opinions to draw from hearing her opinion, if he had just said "She's a shit producer, because she's a woman, and she has a fat arse" this would obviously be personal attacks drawn on nothing but hatred, Ampersand's comments seem justified.

>It's not nice for you to assume that I worked on the 11O'Clock show to make every joke vindictive and cruel, a lot of people on this site know my work, and know that's not my style.

I never said it was your style, I said you work on a show who's style is like that, READ WHAT I SAID SLOWLY.

>Incidently, Steve, I haven't worked on the show for a month. Check the credits if you don't believe me.

I've seen your name there recently, definately in the last 2-3 weeks, and why do you still defend the show if you seem to resent peoples remarks on how bad it is?

>>>Don't assume things, Steve, you just end up looking stupid, mad or both...
>
>>Quiet

>That would have been very pithy if that had been the right word. Close though...

Or maybe he's just asking you to shut the fuck up. I certainly would. In fact, I will.

Shut the fuck up, Nev.

>Dingwall's Ampersand made assumptions on Lucy's motives from speaking directly to her about her producing.

That was someone else. Never mind.

Hey, if this discussion was happening within the actual thread people could go through the article and add comments more directly and accurately. What a crazy idea. Setting up a seperate thread reeks of wanting it to die so that disparaging comments about someone's mate gets seen by less people over a shorter space of time. TJ and Justin have done their bit. Join them.

Nev, is that really all you can pick up on or disagree with after reading 2500 words? If it is, then could you please confirm for everyone the drug dependancy of anybody currently in radio comedy and how badly it is affecting their work? Perhaps a bar chart?

If you can clear up the suggestion that pension plans and ladder climbing are the principal concerns of certain producers in radio, then that'd be a bonus. Be specific if at all possible.

Better still, do that and then post it in the thread itself. Save yourself the bother of correcting people's spelling and bickering with Steven, instead dumping your actual *opinion* in 'The Big Booth 2' thread itself.

And what's the big issue with long articles? You're starting to sound like Charlie Brooker.

Regards,

DA

>>See, it's not very nice when people make assumptions about you, is it?
>
>Not when they are about completely unrelated subjects, if I made any comments about the mucus deposits in my nose and about pre-pubescent age, maybe your comment would be justified, but I didn't, therefore it is all just petty crap made to back up your argument, but doesn't, because it's completely unrelated.

Not at all. I have a stereotyped picture of you in my head from your postings, which I exploited. You have a stereotypical picture of me from the fact that I work on the Eleven O' Clock show, which you exploited.
The fact that the 11 O'Clock show is just one job amongst dozens of projects i've worked on this year seems to cut no ice for you. You seem to trot out the same tired old comments.

>Dingwall's Ampersand made assumptions on Lucy's motives from speaking directly to her about her producing, this is obviously a related topic and one can draw conclusions from this. Saying that Chris Morris is just "mad" and that she was embarassed for working on his Music show seems like ludicrous remarks, as well as the other comments she made as stated in the review. It seems most of the statements are completely valid opinions to draw from hearing her opinion, if he had just said "She's a shit producer, because she's a woman, and she has a fat arse" this would obviously be personal attacks drawn on nothing but hatred, Ampersand's comments seem justified.

CAN YOU READ????You really haven't read the review properly have you? You really haven't, have you???

The comments you've quoted were taken from a DIFFERENT producer, not Lucy. As ever, you just charge in, don't you?

>I've seen your name there recently, definately in the last 2-3 weeks,

I haven't. It wasn't.

and why do you still defend the show if you seem to resent peoples remarks on how bad it is?

I'm not defending the show. I'm not interesting in defending anything. I understand people's tastes are subjective. You either like it or you don't, it's up to you.

I'm just sick and tired of people like you saying i'm not entitled to any opinion of any description because I worked on one show for two months, particularly when I raise a valid point about violent and imflammatory language which some people(Santa) agree with.

I found the remarks offensive and uncalled for, and calling them 'echoes' or 'metephorical' or however you try to justify it cuts no ice for me.

Yes, but Nev. The state of radio comedy (specifically, a forthcoming programme which sounds lazy as hell). Discuss. We're waiting.

>I'm just sick and tired of people like you saying i'm not entitled to any opinion of any description because I worked on one show for two months, particularly when I raise a valid point about violent and imflammatory language which some people(Santa) agree with.
>
>I found the remarks offensive and uncalled for, and calling them 'echoes' or 'metephorical' or however you try to justify it cuts no ice for me.
>

Yes, and I'm sick and tired of the violent and inflamatory language of a certain show, some of which was undoubtedly written by you. Many items featured on it have seemed offensive and uncalled for to me.

Oh, and as you're so desperately concerned with people's gramattical skills, it's 'metAphorical'. With an A.

>Yes, but Nev. The state of radio comedy (specifically, a forthcoming programme which sounds lazy as hell). Discuss. We're waiting.

I think it's pretty robust at the moment. Certainly better than a year or so ago after the initial shake-up.

We have 'The Sunday Format' a unique and innovative show, v clever...'Dead Ringers' is very popular now, and combines with 'The news Quiz and the Now Show' to give a pretty consistant quality in the friday 6.30 'satire slot'...

Yeah, I think there's a lot of good stuff. Once again, I'm not defending shows, peoples tastes are subjective, but perhaps we should listen to the edit before we judge the finished show, hmmm?

Oh, and one more thing, Nev. Stop talking to us like we're *all* twelve years old. We don't need you to tell us that the radio broadcasts comedy most days (as you so patronisingly did for about a week two months ago). We know that.

>>I'm just sick and tired of people like you saying i'm not entitled to any opinion of any description because I worked on one show for two months, particularly when I raise a valid point about violent and imflammatory language which some people(Santa) agree with.
>>
>>I found the remarks offensive and uncalled for, and calling them 'echoes' or 'metephorical' or however you try to justify it cuts no ice for me.
>>
>
>Yes, and I'm sick and tired of the violent and inflamatory language of a certain show, some of which was undoubtedly written by you. Many items featured on it have seemed offensive and uncalled for to me.
>
>Oh, and as you're so desperately concerned with people's gramattical skills, it's 'metAphorical'. With an A.


Bit of a waste of a posting, wasn't it mate?

>Oh, and one more thing, Nev. Stop talking to us like we're *all* twelve years old. We don't need you to tell us that the radio broadcasts comedy most days (as you so patronisingly did for about a week two months ago). We know that.

You're a clever chap Justin, but calm down a bit mate. That was in response to that general survey Jon (I think) implemented, in which all but a few people said under 'favourite radio comedy' said 'dunno' or 'didn't know there was any radio comedy'.

Don't assume everyone on this sight's a renaissance person like you, eh?

Hmm, Ok, so I made a mistake and got mixed up with the producer, that's because I haven't read that article since it went into 'Old Topics' which I never venture into. Which would be rectified with what Ampersand said about not starting up seperate threads. And since Nev said he agrees with everything Santa said, Santa also said that everything in the article was valid, but that there was hate behind it, this means Nev also finds the producer lazy etc, so was that a mistake on Nev's part?

And Nev, you do come across as defending the 11ocs at the moment, and you did defend the show in the past, along with that 'A Bit of the 11ocs' person as well, if you both were writers for it, of course people are going to assosciate it with you, if you don't want a shit stain on your C.V. you should look into your writing commissions before deciding to work for them, unless of course you just want the money.

Ill take that as an apology, Steven.

>Ill take that as an apology, Steven.

I'll take that as avoiding the questions. They really are mounting up, Nev...

>Bit of a waste of a posting, wasn't it mate?

No it wasn't. And I'm not your 'mate', so don't call me that.

Let's do this properly, shall we?

'The Big Booth 2'
BBC Radio Theatre, 27 November 2000

Boothby Graffoe recorded the latest in a strand of sessions for his second Radio 4 series on Monday night. It features Kevin Eldon, Stephen Frost, Big Al, Vivienne Soan, some cunt called Antonio Fortioni, six microphones and a set of chairs. It's a pretty familar format too, as are most of the jokes. Graffoe acknowledges this in the warm-up: "Anyone remember a programme called 'Round The Horne'? Well you'll probably recognise some of the jokes tonight." If he were to add Monty Python, the Goons, Harry Enfield, Kenny Everett, Harry Hill and the word 'verbatum' to the intro it would be slightly more honest.

Boothby also makes the inevitable gag when he discovers a medical student in the audience: "So if we need any drugs tonight ladies and gentlemen, I think we know where to get them." Which is an odd thing to say when that very man happens to be waiting in the wings with a dusty copy of the script.

Onto the cast, whilst we're talking of them. Boothby takes the lead character of himself, Stephen Frost plays the narrator (himself) and anything else which fits the plot, while Kevin Eldon - who nowadays will do anything for a chaffed septum - opts for his Rent-an-Impression on auto-pilot. So, himself then.

Last week Neil Innes turned up along with Jim Sweeney and John Dowie, who wasn't performing but was in the vicinity. What sounds like quite a good show ended up, by all accounts, to be unapolagetically bad.

I wasn't there. I was in Blackfriars with some friends of mine in teaching. An unexpected guest was a BBC Radio producer. Her words are pretty relevant to this review, but not for the better. Let's just call her Clare, coz that's her name.

Time passed, Clare arrived and then time slid to a hideous halt. We talked about her current work as a producer of sociological documentaries: studies of heroin addiction, familes torn apart, that kind of thing. All pretty worthy stuff by the sound of it and she may even have a Sony Award in the bag for all I know.

My problems began when I asked about her work for Radio One Eff-Em prior to the SOTCAA-defined Year Zero. Amazingly she had worked as a researcher for 'The Chris Morris Music Show', a tremendous if over-mythologised series broadcast in 1994. She evaded almost every question I asked about that work, not because she was protective of the Morris mystique ("he's just mad") but because she was *embarassed* by it. Somehow it was beneath her, now that she is the decision maker and Grand Wizard of Drug Docs.

Amidst a conversation about audience attention spans, where I accused her of having "gone to one too many focus groups" (cue a guilty look), she brought up her work on Danny Kelly's brilliant 'Soundbite' (R1 1994-6) - once again to dismiss it as shit. She remembered replaying a three-minute item she had edited which she shuddered over: "It was *so* indulgent! I could have done that in one minute, not three!" She sank behind her overpriced bottle of lager with a cheeky grin.

And it just kept coming. Victor Lewis-Smith "has never been funny", followed seconds later by an admittance that she was too young to have heard his radio work (roughly 1989/90). John Peel too was in for the flak, accusing him of "playing up to his image for the sake of it" with no basis for the argument. Certainly Peel's incapable of answering a question directly but so was she.

I began to wonder if she even liked the medium she worked in. Was she just on the gravy train until TV work or a pension arrived, whichever came sooner? Another question I threw at her was precisely "what has happened to comedy on Radio 1?". "Times have changed". As though comedy is somehow more disposable than music and the entire nation are subsurvient to the milky meanderings of Seb Fontaine. Wise Buddah my arse.

So this is your common or garden BBC producer speaking. She thinks that comedy shouldn't be on what was the most popular BBC radio station. "That's what Radio 4's there for" she said dismally, as though the world will transform tomorrow and 'Blue Jam' or 'The League Against Tedium' will suddenly become a Summer substitute for 'Loose Ends'. She doesn't care about radio. That was pretty conclusive.

And neither does Boothby Graffoe by all imperial evidence. What was particularly desperate about this recording was the propensity to use visual aids in order to get laughs, timed so that the audience would cackle over a line that was *not* funny. Boothby would roll his eyes or coast his hands over his head when a joke bombed, as though we were not fit to be in the presence of his brilliance. ("It'll be understood in ten years time, Boothby. Have a nice long bath in the meantime"). The others would pull a stupid face or dance a twatty jig, which in themselves are not entirely uncommon in radio recordings but Jesus H. Christ there were many tonight. I call this cheating, what about you?

Worse was their adoption of the mighty art of the Forced Fluff, largely indectable from the script due to the fact that the cock-ups were far funnier and more natural. Was this some self-defence mechanism with the cast knowing that they were fighting a losing battle and deciding to ride the fluffs so as to cover them up? The prime example followed an horrendous pun from Boothby, "what is in the post is not in the present", which deservedly got no laughs whatsoever. After carrying on regardless and yet another whistling hand over his head, Stephen Frost butts in with "I've only just got that!" and virtually has a coronary. Like he hadn't had it explained to him in rehearsals.

Most beguiling of all is Big Al, a mysterious bloke whom Boothby discovered whilst off his face during the Edinburgh Fringe. He suggested it would be a great idea for this Scotsman to appear in his new show, travel down to London once a week for this thrilling purpose and emit a couple of lines that any fucker could do. In fact this is the total of his character, suggesting a complete blag based on a crap idea Boothby had one hazy evening. Pick of the Binge if you like.

The special guest tonight was Robyn Hitchcock, a relatively obscure singer/songwriter who is currently doing a spot of touring and media work over here. I make no bones about this being the only attraction for me to come to the show and Boothby is known to be a fan as well. When he performs the song 'Uncorrected Personality Traits' during the first show BG paces behind him, cackling as though he hasn't heard the song a million times before. If he really does think he's that great then why the hell was he depending on his agent to *remind* him about a support slot for Robyn in Camden a week earlier? He failed to show. Too many late nights or sycophancy on tap?

Robyn is hardly adept to comedy. Whereas he can zoom off into a long and very funny monologue on stage, scripted comedy is a completely different animal. (He appears in 'The Jerry Atrick Show'(C5) this Sunday so take a look for yourself.) When asked to contribute to a sketch Robyn fouls up every line, loses the rhythm of the dialogue and squints at the script as though it's an alien language. This is incredibly funny, as a bald act of messing up the recording. Shame then that he's encased in a dreadful routine with Eldon and Graffoe over thinking he's Alfred Hitchcock, the dead director. Boothby ought to be shot for something that lame.

Especially since he knows that Robyn towers above him as a performer. Brilliant with verbiage and the comic lyric, halfway between Syd Barrett and Bob Dylan stylistically and earthing all of this with a fluid performance style, his song gripped the whole of the audience unlike anything in the script. With lines like "Even Marilyn Monroe was a man/But this tends to get overlooked/By our mother-fixated/Overweight, sexist media" Boothby should be embarassed, not ebullient.

Robyn's song throws up a curious parallel too. It was written in 1983 during a period of personal reconciliation, following his years with The Soft Boys and a stilted attempt at a solo career. During the late-Seventies The Soft Boys were one of the most vilified groups in the music press, whereas the more acceptable art-rock groups This Heat and The Pop Group were toasted for each new release. SB were an unstable group, strung out on acid for most of their existence. Robyn eventually cabbaged, retired for two years and wrote sporadic songs for Captain Sensible of all people.

Now, unless you actually buy into Bill Hicks' jaded and monochromatic philosophy you will be fully aware that for every drug-induced artistic triumph there is a Captain Sensible album trundling behind, unsteady on it's feet. Likewise, Boothby Graffoe's show is the 'Women and Captain First' of current comedy - full of overworked stabs at surrealism, written and patched together at the last minute (which becomes a joke within the script just in case anyone spots it) and stretching anaemic post-modernism to such a degree that you can taste a comedy sound effect of an elastic band heading your way.

What you can also hear is a precocious and repeated slamming of the door, with Boothby running off into his little corner of the world where 'The Big Booth 2' really is construed as groundbreaking stuff. He's probably there right now, lighting a spliff and slapping 'The Clangers' omnibus into the VCR. Not a care in the world because the cheque is in the post and he's managed to cheat the BBC and it's audience into believing that he spent more than a modicum of time preparing the script. Closer to the truth is the image of a Perrier nominee writing hurriedly to a deadline, giving up at 4am with an "oh fuck it" and not so much as a by your leave for completion. Fill the duration out with some long drawn out guitar dirge and no one will ever know.

And wow - what guitar dirge! I've left him alone until now, but having to sit through what was ostensibly a finished show and then receive five minutes of bland sonic attack from a dreary fret-wanker with a slight moustache - who also has the nerve to be called Antonio Fortioni (for fuck's sake) - purely to cover up a gaping hole in the script sure takes some beating. I'll file away that ISIHAC recording I went to a fortnight ago in Coventry and try to forget it was made by the same station, shall I? Fuck off. I'll go back for the next series and enjoy Cryer, Garden, Brooke-Taylor and Lyttleton delivering puns with conviction and not contempt.

Lucy Armitage, another useless radio producer, came on at the end of the recording to wake us up and beg us all to join them for next week's show. Rather unprofessionally she commented on the lack of attendance this week by saying "I'm getting bollocked for it" *in front* of the audience, as though that's going to help. If she had any sense amidst her post-goth hairdo a brief word to the cast beforehand would have ensured a few hints dropped, a few careful persuasions for us to come along and enjoy free masochism. I dunno. Perhaps the cast were all in the bog.

Monday's recording will be signed for the deaf (which is only ever entertaining when someone swears) and special guests will be Rich Hall - another comic who can't get arrested in America - and, lordy, Ms Mariella Frostrup. If you're very lucky you may even get the chance to see Lucy kicked in the stomach by a managing director until she coughs up blood, tearing up her pension plan as he walks away, and some minions dragging her corpse away to the special room. Boothby will almost certainly roll his eyes, gurn at the audience and nick a couple of lines off of Harry Hill. Damn, another drugs reference. Still not as many as there were in the show.

'The Big Booth 2' was hateful radio made by people who hate radio. Give it an extremely wide berth.

_______________________


Now, where were we?

>Now, where were we?

Here, I think:

The Radio 1 producer sounds like a typically ignorant careerist notalent. Her "he's just mad" dismissal of Morris is infuriating. It's the easiest form of self-promoting lazy
reference in existence in the media at the moment. The implication would seem to be that he was a barking psychotic, whereas it was good old researcher girl who held the whole thing together ha ha ha aren't I highly
skilled Mr. Potential Employer. From various accounts given by people who've actually met him, Morris certainly doesn't seem mad. Fact of the matter is that truly 'mad' artistic people seldom manage to realise their grand visions(Brian Wilson being a particularly strong example). Morris has completed every
ambitious project he has ever started. I sincerely doubt that this characteristic could be applied to her.

Her rubbishing of "Soundbite" is equally maddening. It was one of the finest Radio 1 programmes of the 1990s, and how anyone could describe it as "indulgent" is beyond me. The fact that she then went on to dismiss Peel and Lewis-Smith underlines it for me - she is one of the horrendous breed of people who don't like anyone with an ounce of creativity or individuality, as they have a tendency to get in the way of
their pathetic careerist goals. Nothing new of course - Spike Milligan and The Goodies have both told similar tales - but all the same an attitude we could well do without. The flippant "times have changed" reaction to what appears to have been a genuine and honest question about the lack of comedy on Radio 1 shows her idioticy up even further. I have always had a theory about the demise of comedy, documentary and specialist programming on Radio 1. They all seemed
to happen around the same time - somewhere in the late summer of 1997, when I also seem to recall hearing something about somebody famous or other who had an unfortunate incident with a car and a tunnel. As Mark Radcliffe has remarked many times, even though "regular programming" returned to Radio 1 in theory within a couple of days, the actual genuine regular programming(ie shows being where they were and presented by who they were before the Queen Of Hearts' blueflash roadmash) took a lot longer, and then most of them were promptly dumped. Could it be that certain career-motivated
talentless idiots took the opportunity of the Diana-enforced good programming hiatus to seize control of Radio 1 and shape it into "their" vision? That's what I've always suspected, anyway.

Didn't the demise on comedy on Radio 1 stem from the departure of Matthew Bannister as its controller.?

>Don't assume everyone on this sight's a renaissance person like you, eh?

'Site', Nev. Not 'sight'. Spaz, mong, you can't even spell, ha ha etc... Not pleasant is it.

And one of your earlier postings to this forum has a very similar source code to 'Santa'. Is it someone in the office perhaps? Or is just you with a false beard on?

Shame TV and radio comedy doesn't recognise that there are actually a lot more 'renaissance persons' out there. They may practise a bit of quality control over their commissioned writers then.

And that'll be Nev out of a job...

>combines with 'The news Quiz and the Now Show' to give a pretty consistant quality in the friday 6.30 'satire slot'...

Would that be the same 'News Quiz' that Nev Fountain has contributed to in recent weeks?

God, you lot love to hunt in packs, don't you?

>>Quiet
>That would have been very pithy if that had been the right word. Close though...

As pointed out, it was the right word, you just misunderstood. Please try to keep up. Or take my advice.

>God, you lot love to hunt in packs, don't you?

...said the fool poking a stick into a lion's den.

Aaaargh!

See, it is right. Shut everyone in one big room with no escape and soon they'll turn on each other.