At five minutes to seven I was a little worried that our session on BBC Radio Two’s Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe wasn’t going to happen, given that the show was due to start in five minutes and I had managed to get stuck in a lift. I stepped into the lift, and the doors closed behind me, but then the lift didn’t move. I searched around for buttons, but couldn’t find any. I started to wonder whether the lift had been the victim of BBC cost cutting, and perhaps it was decided that buttons in a lift was a bit too much of a luxury in these straightened times. It turns out that the real reason there was an absence of buttons inside the lift is because the buttons are all on the outside of the lift, and you are meant to choose your floor before entering. I tried to call Sean and Michael to let them know I was stuck in a none-moving lift, but there was no phone reception. Fortunately, after about five minutes, the lift doors opened and I managed to find the other two.
I really enjoyed the session. It was great to meet Mark Radcliffe, who’s Radio shows I’ve listened to since his afternoon radio one Mark and Lard shows, and he is definitely one of my influences in terms of radio and comedy. In fact, after the session I tried to communicate this to him, although it may have freaked him out a little bit that I seemed to remember more about his Radio One programs than he did. In fact, when I mentioned him playing Radio Pass the Parcel, he had no recollection of this and suggested that I might be confusing him with someone else. I have Googled it and I was correct. It was a regular item on the show for some time. I think it’s quite incredible and a testament to him as a broadcaster that he’s obviously done so much stuff that he can’t even remember certain things he’s done, and that he has fans who have more of a knowledge of some of his broadcasts than he does. Either that or maybe he’s just got a crap memory. I’d like to think though that one day perhaps someone will come up to me an extol the virtues of something I once did on a radio show or podcast that I no longer remember. Perhaps one day someone will excitedly start chatting about James Fagan’s Talking Bollocks, and I’ll look at them blankly and ask whether they’re sure they’re not getting me confused with someone else. It would be great to think that one day I might have achieved so much in my life that even the memory of such quality features as James Fagan’s Talking Bollocks will become a forgotten irrelevance to me. At the moment it’s hard to imagine how I might ever produce anything that will top that kind of broadcasting, but you never know.
The BBC Radio Two Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe session is available here on the Iplayer until next Wednesday. After next wednesday I’ll provide you with a link to download it. Our bit starts seventeen minutes in.
Right then, I’m off to add the final touches to a standup routine I plan to perform in the next couple of months, then I’ll get working on the new Young’uns Podcast, and then to begin work on the next Pick and Mix. Lots of things in the pipeline.
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