#radio4extra

This is the cassette I’m currently working my way through

When I hear a programme I like that isn’t commercially available, I get it up on iPlayer and put my tape recorder next to my upside down laptop. 

I use Maxwell tapes- 45 minutes on each side, and they come with four sticky strips to label the box and the tape. I write in pencil in case I want to record over programmes later in my life. I also used to record over tapes bought from charity shops, until I realised these tapes wouldn’t have as long as life as newly bought ones.

On this specimen we have-

*Ghost Trains of Old England: A man goes around looking for trains which are odd- for example, there is a service that goes in one direction, but there is no easy way to go in the other direction. Very few people actually use the train. This happens because it is very expensive to actually get rid of a train service if it has stopped being profitable due to very low demand for that route, so the trains just keep running. There is also a bus which has replaced a train and barely anyone gets on that either. 

*Ivor Cutler- A Stuggy Pren. Ivor Cutler is my second favourite radio entity. A lot of his later work is not available to buy as far as I can find, but he is an absolute gem. This is very surreal and dry, with songs played on a harmonium. 

Douglas Adams coming up with ever more inventive methods of procrastination by making a radio nature documentary- “woah, look at that amazing animal- oh wait you can’t.” 

Kidding it’s lovely of course you just have to use your imagination

And maybe that’s better you know? 

The legendary the one the true the most fascinatingly hilariously boring half hour of radio ever 

I love these insights into what life was like in The Past that Radio 4 Extra allows me

“What time’s Children’s Hour on?”

“What do you want to watch Children’s Hour for?”

“Oh, Bill and Ben the Flowerpot might be on...”