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an encounter
hello people. hope all is well in your world. i know - it's kind of me to ask isn't it? this week's programme is shaping up very nicely and i think it's going to be one of the finest so far. this, despite the fact that i spent very little time working on it yesterday. instead i had to go and interview Mark Thompson - the DG - for a radio festival being held in the bowels of Broadcasting House. i'm not telling you this so as to impress you. in fact quite the opposite. these kind of interviews are usually pretty ghastly for all involved, you are never sure exactly what the perameters are, and perhaps it was for this reason that i found myself quoting to him the thoughts of my leg waxer, Jadene. Now Jadene is a bright young thing and she does a mean wax - but she has no idea what the 大象传媒 is and every time we end up having the same chat when she tells me about everything she likes and hates about Channel 4 and i keep telling her i work for Radio 4 and they aren't the same thing. Sadly when the pain gets too much i just find myself agreeing with her and offerring to pass on her thoughts about what's wrong with Big Brother. I feel fraudulent in making this promise.
And come to think of it this is the second blog i've written about Channel 4 in two weeks which is just not the done thing on a Radio 4 website. But which will be worse - being sacked for being too hirsuit or sacked for feeling too much love for Jon Snow?
You decide. Why not send a vote in by text and we'll get Davina to preside. Oh look - i've gone and done it again.
Next week no mention of anything apart from 大象传媒 business. Promise.Love and hugs as ever
Fi
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31st March 2007
Paul Blackburn spoke movingly about being the victim of a miscarriage of justice. Kevin Linfoot explained how he has become a successful businessman despite being illiterate.
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Dog Trainer
Dima Yeremenko is the founder of the Good Boy Dog School in Hampstead. He was born in the Ukraine, where he graduated as a dog instructor. Since coming over here he has established quite a reputation for his canine expertise 鈥 the Times called him the 鈥榤agic dog whisperer of North London.鈥
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Imperial Valley Christian Center
This week's podcast is brought to you courtesy of Greg Marquez from the .
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Bill Wyman
tells us how he's been keeping busy since leaving the Rolling Stones.
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Illiterate Tycoon
Kevin Linfoot is an extremely successful man. He is only 48 years old but has built up, from scratch, a property empire worth millions of pounds. He has a partner and a son. He lives in a beautiful house. It would seem that he has a very bright mind and has made the most of what life has offered him. But Kevin is completely and utterly illiterate.
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Miscarriage of Justice
Paul Blackburn spent 25 years in jail for the assault and attempted murder of a nine-year-old boy. He was 14 when he was arrested. He was released on licence in 2003 and in May 2005 the Court of Appeal accepted that Paul didn鈥檛 receive a fair trial and quashed his conviction.
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Lemn Sissay
Lemn Sissay, acclaimed poet and playwright, was born to an Ethiopian mother and brought up by a white foster family and in children鈥檚 homes. His poems have been described as 鈥渟ongs of the street鈥.
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Joan Bakewell
Joan Bakewell has been a presence on Britain鈥檚 television since the 1960s when she co-presented the nightly 大象传媒 2 show Late Night Line Up. This ran from 1964 until 1972, earning itself 鈥 and her 鈥 a loyal following.
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other people's blogs
i know that i should have done this weeks ago, but i have just got around to looking at some of the other blogs created by the 大象传媒's megastars and i can see where i am going wrong. what i should be doing is telling you what i can see out of the window and/or how much i had to drink last night and what i watched on television. is this really the stuff that you want to know?
in no particular order the results are
1. how your licence fee is spent
2. channel 4 and
3. not enoughi fear that none of these answers paint me in an interesting light and in fact two of them mean that i may never work at the 大象传媒 again. i believe that there is a plan to introduce random Channel 4 testing and in that case i will, unfortunately, be found to have more than is strictly allowed in my urine. grand designs is the problem. i just can't leave it alone. one programme is never enough. i've become addicted to seeing just how mad some people have become about where they live and what they want their house to say about them. it's as if they have a whole licence fee to spend on beautiful soothing marble standing redolent against the backdrop of London's West End skyline....
shall i crack on with some work?
best to i think
love and hugs as ever
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24th March 2007
Our studio guest was Malorie Blackman while Murray Lachlan Young provided the rhymes despite suffering from conjunctivitis.
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Marathon Des Sables
Lucas Bateman is a house husband and ultra runner. He is in Morocco at the moment preparing to run in the Marathon des Sables, one of the most gruelling races on earth. You can follow Lucas鈥 progress .
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Top 5 Westerns
Jay Haas and his mates from the saddle up and pick their Top 5 westerns.
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Marguerite Patten
Marguerite Patten鈥檚 contribution to the nation鈥檚 eating habits is quite phenomenal. She was the original celebrity chef 鈥 bringing her knowledge of food and nutrition to post war TV screens in 1947.
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Light Sensitivity
We may all be whooping with joy at the prospect of the clocks changing and a little more sunshine coming in to our lives but spare a moment's thought for Brenda and John Ryder this weekend.
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Pedalling Across The Atlantic
Stevie Smith decided to use a pedalo to cross the Atlantic in a journey that took him over a hundred days and nearly cost him his sanity.
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Muzak
Nigel Grant got in touch with us to let us know how much he hates any kind of muzak.
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Murray Lachlan Young
This week鈥檚 poet, Murray Lachlan Young, has performed in many diverse situations: Mega festivals (and little ones), TV, film and theatre. From Shakespeare鈥檚 Globe to Speakers Corner via the main stage at Glastonbury. He has won over hostile crowds, been threatened with violence and even had to run for his life.
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Malorie Blackman
has now sold over 1.5 million books in the UK and was one of the nation鈥檚 favourite authors in the 大象传媒鈥檚 BIG READ in 2005.
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more spin offs
i know that many of you will still be recovering from the body blow created by Blue Peter's Phone Scam Tragedy. i don't know if i can watch the programme ever again. but i want you to know that all of us here at Saturday Live are committed to truth and honesty in our broadcasts. but we have one small admission to make. obviously when we were gearing up for transmission last summer we made several pilots during which we did read out emails from made up people. or we made up emails from real people. i can't remember which - it's all such a blur of creativity now. it's quite a strange thing when that happens because the emails are always very dull. no one in the production office thinks to write a mock up of the kind we usually get - the ones that say 'excruciating guests, dull presenter, switched off 30 minutes ago' . that kind of thing. of course if anyone did write that i'd have to have them sacked. i'm assuming that it doesn't count because the programmes never went on air - but they'll be tapes of them somewhere so it's best to get this horrible thing out into the open right away. i look forward to reading all your emails on saturday - a small prize will go to the most offensive...just to prove that it is all real.........
love and hugs
fi
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17th March 2007
This week a police diver told us about the ucky things he comes across in the course of a day's work, Barbara Haddrill explained how she got to a wedding in Brisbane without stepping foot in an aeroplane, and a market stall holder revealed how he unwittingly sold a half million pound piece of graffiti.
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Lynn Alderson
Lynn Alderson's story is one of breaking down boundaries. She and her partner Sue adopted a child, Jennie, and in doing so set a precedent in law regarding gay and lesbian adoption.
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Judith Holder
This week Grumpy Old Woman Judith Holder reveals that she likes nothing better than to snuggle down with her favourite catalogue.
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Police Diver
Feeling your way in freezing, dark waters for dead bodies is not everyone鈥檚 idea of job fulfillment. If you are Ross Atkinson, a police diver for the Northumbria Police force, then this could be your average day at work. Ross is part of the diving team that is called on to retrieve evidence, or sometimes dead people, from anywhere watery in the North East of England.
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Babs to Brisbane
Barbara Haddrill faced a dilemma. She had been invited to be a bridesmaid at her good friend's wedding in Brisbane, Australia, but flying over there long-haul went against all her green beliefs. The answer? Planes, trains and automobiles (and a few boats too). We caught up with her in Singapore on her return journey.
You can read more about Bab's adventures on her
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Banksy graffiti
Sam Khan runs a market stall on Tottenham Court Road in London. He wishes he'd known how valuable the graffiti was that was painted on the side of his stall - he'd be a rich man by now.
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How to apologise
In this week's podcast share an elegant three and a half step apology. You might want to take notes.
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Elvis McGonagall
Elvis McGonagall - poet, twit and armchair revolutionary does the rhyming this week.
Find out more about him on his .
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Hardeep Singh Kohli
Glaswegian writer and comedian is back in the hotseat this week.
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rocket man (steve, not elton)
it's very rare that you meet someone who has fulfilled their childhood ambition isn't it? in a fun little game of 'Once Round the Office' this week we have the following results
an actress
an operatic tenor
two vets
a bank teller
and an Assistant Producer on a Saturday morning programme at Radio 4 (JP Devlin, of course)obviously only one of those people has fulfilled their lifetime ambition, although i could still make it on the Bureau de Change desk down at Barclays if this show doesn't work out.
thankfully this week we have someone who has made his dream a reality - and it's worth talking about on the radio. It's Steve Bennett who is Britain's leading rocket scientist. His rocket can go from 0 - 700 miles per hour in under four seconds. And he intends to travel in it in a few years time.
Make him welcome on the programme please, and do let me know how your childhood dreams turned out
Love and hugs as ever
Sorry about the mix of upper and lower case in this blog. my life is dull and this is a way of spicing it up you know.....
Fi
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10th March 2007
Brough Scott was our studio guest and Jude Simpson provided the poetry.
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In Horse Harmony
Mark and Deborah Gerki help us to understand what it means to understand the horse, from the horse鈥檚 perspective.
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Jennie Bond
Former 大象传媒 Royal correspondent Jennie Bond chooses this week's tracks.
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Phobia of the Past
Jill Robinson has a phobia about the past.
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Rocket Man
ambition was always to be a rocket scientist. With a combination of passion and determination over the years he has now become Britain鈥檚 top rocket scientist.
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Lord Redesdale
is a Lib Dem Lord in the House of Lords and is their spokesman on overseas development.
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Jude Simpson
is a comic poet, slam winner, lyricist, rhymer, entertainer, writer, singer and all-round lover of words.
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Brough Scott
Brough Scott is one of the best known figures in horse racing although he once received a viewer鈥檚 letter stating 鈥測ou used to be the world鈥檚 worst jockey, now you are the world鈥檚 worst commentator, please shut up.鈥
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oops
maria is livid. she cannot contain herself with fury. she is our executive producer and runs our ship with a firm but fair hand. but today she is incandescant - because i forgot to do the blog. i am in disgrace. i can only apologise. i wish that i could make up for it by writing a truly magnificent blog - one that beats all other blogs. but look at the time i'm writing this - 7.29 am. all i can think of is coffee, bananas and why the News 24 jingle is so annoying. i'm too tired to use capital letters. help.
i can pass on to you one true tale from the week though. a friend of mine works opposite the Royal College of Anaesthetists (they get capital letters - you don't want to offend someone who might one day be in charge of your eternal sleep ). apparently this week the entire building had to be evacuated. because of a gas leak.
tee hee heewell what do you expect this early in the morning?
upper case is back next week
best and all
fi
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3rd March
Today poet Murray Lachlan Young and special guest Louise Rennison were in studio to help make sense of all goings on.
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Sammy Gitau
Sammy Gitau was born and brought up in Mathare - Nairobi's oldest slum district. About 300 thousand people live in the slums and for Sammy the chances of escaping that life were slim. The chances of him ending up on a course at Manchester University studying International Development were even slimmer. But in 2001 whilst working on community projects in the slums Sammy found a university prospectus for Manchester University in a huge mountain of garbage. After years of battling bureaucracy he achieved his goal and made it to Manchester, much to his own amazement.
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Geoff Capes
Strong man is the most capped British male athlete of all time. But he also has a passion for breeding budgerigars...
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John Killick
John Killick has spent the last ten years talking and listening to people with dementia and writing poetry and prose based on their conversations 鈥 he believes that what these people have to say can be highly illuminating and insightful. He has published two poetry books with people with dementia: 'You Are Words' and 'Openings', which are available at
Find out more about John's work on his
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Fake gun
Darren Foster is a student at Yorkshire Coast College, and was taking part in a Pinter play that required him to carry a plastic gun. He wishes he'd known the trouble this would cause him...
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Lynne Truss
Lynne Truss is the author of Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door and The Lynne Truss Treasury. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, for which she won Britain's Book of the Year Award, has sold more than three million copies worldwide. Truss is a regular host on 大象传媒 Radio 4, a Times columnist, and the author of numerous radio comedy dramas.
Her Inheritance Track choices were: : 'It might as well rain until September', and : 'I'm still standing'.
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Louise Rennison
is the author of the angst-filled Confessions of Georgia Nicolson books.
Following the success of her one-woman autobiographical show, Stevie Wonder Felt my Face, Louise has written for many comedy stars. She has reported for Radio 4 and is a columnist for the London Evening Standard magazine.
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Murray Lachlan Young
This week鈥檚 poet, Murray Lachlan Young, has performed in many diverse situations: Mega festivals (and little ones), TV, film and theatre. From Shakespeare鈥檚 Globe to Speakers Corner via the main stage at Glastonbury. He has won over hostile crowds, been threatened with violence and even had to run for his life.
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