The Last Laugh
The final day at the Radio Festival in Cambridge was all set to end with a few giggles and maybe a decent guffaw, but things didn't go quite to plan. The penultimate session was centred around the famous Cambridge Footlights, the university club that spawned talents such as John Cleese, Peter Cook and Rory McGrath.
Indeed Rory was there in the flesh and joined on stage by the current Footlights president Tom Sharpe (no, not the comic novelist, but a fresh-faced young student). The discussion got bogged down in notions of class and snobbery. I'm afraid young Tom rather lost the sympathy of the audience when he made reference to the "lower classes" After that his body language resembled that of a young boy trying to fold himself into invisibility.
Worse was to come when we were treated to a live performance by one half of a comedy foursome called The Cowards. As we all waited for punclines that never came I'm afraid I regressed into Glasgow Empire mode with an expression that colleagues told me was a mixture of bafflement and anger.
The day was saved by the final session in which ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 1 presenter Colin Murray interviewed the legendary Tony Blackburn. The two of them seemed to display a mutual respect and Tony let slip that one of his old colleagues (called Dave) had recently been suggesting that they should both be back on Radio 1 because they "knew how to do it".
Tony dismissed the idea as ridiculous revealing that he was now in his sixties and that "Dave" was nearer seventy.
Cleary Tony has been thinking a lot about his age. He revealed that he had recently bought himself a new pair of headphones and realised that this would be the last pair he would ever buy.
"I plan to retire from radio at the end of the year, " he told the audience, "but not the end of this year. Maybe the end of 2030."
