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2 which podcasts this month:
Technology podcast: iphone, ebook, ulisten.
Download the posdcast
Download the podcast
DVD’s for children, telling the stories of great artists, scientists and (coming soon)
great explorers, co-written and co-produced by Testbed’s Nick Baker.Read more
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These are playfully informative programmes aimed at broadening knowledge and occasionally venturing into some difficult and contentious areas. Is English inherently metaphorical because of its marine heritage? Why is “The Dog’s Bollocks” a self cancelling cliché? And what happens when you accept the invitation on a white van suggesting you ask the driver for a quotation. Do you get Wilde or Shakespeare?
The first broadcast on Monday is about Listen to it here.
Listeners who heard it called the BBC and said: "I would like to congratulate the BBC for making this programme." “ absolutely magnificent." “If I had an English teacher like this it would have changed my life." "… very edifying. I learnt a lot from this programme." The Scotsman credits “Fry’s characteristic combination of drollery and urbane erudition: Incomparable, you might say”
The second, (1st September 9am) about Quotations, their uses and misuses, gets inside the heads of those who compile quotation dictionaries as well as those who use and abuse them, and reveals why Wittgenstein is unquotable.
The third, (8th September 9am) basically, looks at how cliché operates for good and bad. Includes the true story of the sick parrot, and the cat’s pyjamas. Also how cliché-consciousness helped shape modern literature, language and culture.
These programmes are soon to be available on CD, together with the brilliant Current Puns.
The Good Food Guide Podcast
Heston Blumenthal interviewed about news that his restaurant The Fat Duck was given a perfect ten out of ten by the new guide – the first such score for four years. Blumenthal celebrates with a demo of a palate-cleansing lime flavoured tour de force using ultra-cold liquid nitrogen.
The Music Group - "The music conversation programme with only three records and no luxury" is presenter Phil Hammond's description - is on Wednesday nights at 1130pm, with a new series in early 2009
Testbed Director Nick Baker has a new book out in October 2008 called Groovy Old Men, which will also be audible in podcast form.