Comedy: The only stand-alone gig that wasn’t just going to see a recording of Breaking the News was seeing a WIP pre-Fringe show from Elaine Malcolmson at Van Winkle in the West End in June.
As for films – the only film I saw at the cinema this year was seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey at the IMAX at the Science Centre in August. Obviously the film is over 50 years old but it was the first time I’d watched it on the big screen – and actually watched it from start to finish. I really enjoyed it.
As for books: I’ve not read anything that is a new novel or auto/biography/memoir. So I’ll have to base it on the things I’ve read for uni studies and of the things I read, I really enjoyed Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd.
Podcasts! Well, this is where I get a bulk of my “entertainment” from these days. I don’t watch television. My viewing is primarily done on YouTube and I have a regular selection of content creators that I watch on YT, and I may just go into that after talking about the various podcasts I’ve listened to this year.
The lists of podcasts I have consumed this year is pretty extensive.
My listening has included the Gangster series which included three investigations in 2024: ‘Catching the Kingpins,’ ‘The Story of Viv Graham,’ and most recently the Glasgow one (I’m not going to print names on my blog!), as well as the World of Secrets series which has covered several investigations this year: ‘The Disciples,’ ‘The Apartheid Killer,’ ‘Al Fayed – Predator at Harrods,’ ‘Finding Mr Fox’ (which I’ve not listened to yet) and ‘The Bad Guru’ (which I am currently listening to). Another podcast series is titled Tortoise and they have aired three series so far: ‘Hoaxed,’ ‘Sweet Bobby,’ and most recently ‘Pig Iron.’ One other podcast series I listen to is Intrigue. This year they’ve featured investigations titled ‘To Catch a Scorpion’ and ‘Worse than Murder.’ Finally, and one that has quite a number of episodes to it – it started back in 2023 but I only started to listen to it this year – is Real Dictators. There’s been something like 80 episodes, broken up into various parts concentrating on one particular dictator for several episodes. There is a big section of it dedicated to Hitler and it’s only just coming to the final parts of the whole Hitler story (they’ve broken the story up into several parts that will be 25 episodes in length once completed). They’ve just started on Mussolini this week. Another podcast series that has had me gripped this year is called Crime Next Door. It has featured several investigations over the past year with recent emphasis on ‘The Salisbury Poisonings.’
A few podcasts I may mention might have been about for a while but I’ve only listened to them this year. Vishal is one such podcast. It was aired in 2023 but I only listened to it this year. Another that was released in 2023 that I only listened to this year was Yeti – which was absolutely gripping. Very much a contender for podcast of the year. Another one that started several years back but has had more recent episodes is The Missing Cryptoqueen.
Other podcasts this year: The History Podcast with series titled: ‘The Lucan Obsession,’ ‘The Brighton Bomb,’ ‘Escape from the Maze,’ ‘D-Day – The Last Voices,’ and ‘Shadow War – China and the West.’
Lady Swindlers – Lucy Worsley’s slight spin-off from the Lady Killers podcast series.
As for more lighter entertainment from BBC Sounds, I am a regular listener to The News Quiz, Dead Ringers, Call Jonathan Pie, Breaking the News, and Just a Minute.
I have to give this one a separate section – The Archers. I started listening to The Archers around 2010, I think it was? (Yes.) The first big storyline I remember was the death of Nigel Pargetter falling off the roof of Lower Loxley at Christmas 2010. For many years I dismissed it as Country Folk Upper Class twaddle – real BBC Radio 4 stuff … but I eventually got gripped by it. I still can’t bear to listen to the intro music. I despise it! So it’s great listening to it via BBC Sounds because I can just skip the intro music altogether. Yay! There’s a new kid on the block though! The show FINALLY has its own podcast hosted by Emma Freud which started in October and is pretty darn good. It’s filled with behind-the-scenes stuff and content and opinions from fans from around the world.
With all that said about my BBC Sounds and podcast listening, what has been the highlight of this year? It’s gonna be hard to pin it down. I’ve listened to so much good stuff this year. I’ll try. Here goes!
Yeti: I just found it really gripping and fascinating. The two men, Andy and Richard, really fed off each other with Andy’s flights of fancy and penchant for getting caught up in the whole myth of ‘the creature’ tempered or juxtaposed by Richard’s more level-headed approach and rationale. And the way life for the various peoples that live around the Himalayas is put across was really insightful.
World of Secrets: Al Fayed – Predator at Harrods. Just … sickening how this man got away with so much. How much money can protect someone from and provide a person with a …. It just facilitates amorality and deception. It’s insidious. It wasn’t comfortable listening at times and those women were incredibly brave to speak out.
Tortoise: Sweet Bobby – I honestly didn’t see the end coming. It’s a real life thing so I shouldn’t talk about it like it’s a plot to a piece of fiction. I recommend you listen to it so you can understand what I mean. Kirat was incredibly brave to share her story with the world like that.
Real Dictators: Pol Pot. As much as I am … enjoying doesn’t feel like the word I should be using here, but… listening to all the Hitler parts of this series, of the dictators that have also featured in the series so far, it was the four parts on Pol Pot that shocked me most. I didn’t know much about the Khmer Rouge and growing up in Australia his name was used almost as a figure of derision – like I can remember his name being bandied about as an insult for someone who was very stern or very malevolent. So this particular 4-parter was an education. All the episodes are. If you’re fascinated with history and certainly more modern history (although they have covered Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell, Genghis Khan, Herod the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte and Attila the Hun in the series), then I recommend it.
The History Podcast: The Brighton Bomb. As you can probably guess from the title, it’s all about the bomb that was planted at the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Conservative Party conference in October 1984. Again, it was a piece of modern history I knew little about other than the obvious thing of Thatcher having survived (along with the vast majority of the rest of the Tory Party members that were there for the conference).
Crime Next Door: The Salisbury Poisonings. A really intensive investigation which has also followed the enquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess as it started in Salisbury and then moved to London. The inquiry now continues closed off to the public due to security sensitivities involving the case.
I really could go on with this. As you can see, I’m quite the voracious consumer of podcasts and I find many real-life, true crime, crime documentaries and current affairs podcasts all very enthralling and fascinating.
I do have to just say again how much I really enjoyed the Desert Island Discs episode with Mark Steel. It was brilliant!
Right!
Let’s move on to YouTube and my favourite content creators. Some keep me enthralled, others I might take the brakes off for a while and come back to them but I have several that I watch habitually. First among them is BeardMeatsFood. I think Adam is funny as hell and I’m always intrigued as to where he’s going next and what kind of food challenges he’ll do. It can be messy and sloppy. He’s self-deprecating, always taking the piss out of his ‘lack of manhood’ and it’s just a good dose of weekly light entertainment.
Secondly is Grackle and her second channel Extra Grack. I feel weirdly like I’m Grace’s friend. She’s just so very natural and the way she puts her content together it’s like you’re just hanging out with her. I’ve been subscribed to her channels for a few years now. I’ve NEVER left a comment. I’m one of ‘those’ watchers, you know? But I just think she’s great. I love her food reviews and just that she shares her life.
Third is the Try Channel. What’s not to love about watching a group of Irish people trying out all kinds of weird and wonderful (or not so wonderful sometimes – if you’ve ever watched Try, you’ll know about the durian fruit!) food and drink from around the world? Much like Beard, it’s just a great distraction from life’s more crappy aspects served up in regular doses three times a week.
Next is Words Unravelled – a word etymology podcast (and YouTube channel) hosted by RobWords (who also has his own etymology YT channel) and Jess Zafarris. I love wordy stuff and I love learning about the history of words and this is just a fabulous channel. Rob and Jess are great.
Then there is Gary Eats. Yes…I do like a food thing it seems. Dunno why? Anyway, some of Gary’s more recent experiences involved Glasgow. He tried out the Star Bar on Eglinton Street just where it meets with Pollokshaws Road. You can have a three-course lunch at the Star Bar for as little as £4! Yes – that’s all three courses for a total £4! Gary is fun and is always reviewing eateries with the hope of it being a positive experience.
Another on the list of regulars is Meg and her channel I’m Autistic, Now What? She can get very analytical about the topics she covers, but that’s what I love about her! She is diagnosed autistic and …. I don’t know what I am. I could be neurotypical or perhaps I am an undiagnosed ADHDer? I’ve no idea but I know a lot of things that Meg discusses in relation to her autism chimes with me. There are traits I’ve had that I have spoken about in the past. Stimming behaviour, social anxiety, sensory quirks – I shy away from self-diagnosis. Let’s say … I’m an autism allegiant – for want of a better way to describe it and without declaring myself as undiagnosed autistic.
Lastly is George Dunnett – or Patchy. He lives in Scotland and has bought a couple of properties local to him and renovated them. He has two cats – Junior and Tigger. Tigger is a recent addition. I don’t really know how to describe his content as it’s a mixed bag of things, from renovation work on his homes, to updates on how Tigger is settling in, to tips on YoutTube content creation. It’s a real hotch-potch. His videos haven’t been too regular lately. He’s just a sweet guy with a dry sense of humour. He makes me smile and I love the cat content – both Junior and Tigger are gorgeous.
One last topical thing to mention is the annual Nerd3 and Ashens Christmas Advent. I can’t believe it’s that time of year again already! It feels like it wasn’t that long ago since I was watching Nerd3 and Ashens battling it out for the best advent calendar of 2023! I mean where the hell did the last 12 months go?! Anyway, again…just full of light entertainment that makes you forget your cares for a while.
Well that was pretty thorough!
