Listening to Dead Ringers this lunchtime I was amused by a spoof on a tv programme about football (I have no interest and don’t watch it). The main, or only, guest was a rather thick sounding bloke with a very deep voice. I had no idea who this person was.
Just then the programme was interrupted by a sign saying that the signal had been lost.
Now I should explain here, on Saturdays I use Humax in order to make sure everything is ok to record my late night Danish thriller ‘The Killing’. The rest of the week I use the Manhattan because it is better and I don’t need to record.
I was annoyed but not surprised, the Humax is known for doing this from time to time so I just moved the channel one step and up came 5 Live broadcasting normally. Forgetting for a moment that I had changed channels I continued to listen to this excellent DR spoof. It was only when I looked up to change back that I realised that I had been listening to someone really interviewing Rio Ferdinand.
DR can be good and it can be less good, but this was brilliant.
My problem with Dead Ringers used to be that most of the impersonations began by people saying whom they were impersonating. I assume this is because most members of the Cabinet are instantly forgettable non-entities
However, it’s not a problem anymore as out of exasperation at bias, I’ve stopped listening to R4 and indeed to the BBC (tho’ might sneak back for recordings of Bragg’s In our Time).
DR is not as good as it used to be, and I didn’t realise this was on, just happened to be here, but I couldn’t give up R4, it is on all day long, sometimes in the background though. In Our Time I like as long as it is a subject I am interested in, often it is not.
I think that is the point of In our Time. It covers such a broad base of subjects and gives you an insight into something you might never have come across before.
Ten years since I last listened, so wouldn’t recognise any of the impersonations any more. Mind you, back in the day I used to hate how so many of them needed to begin with, “Hello, XYZ here…”
Can be, I went off it for a while some years ago, but it seems to have rebounded. I do like the News Quiz and Andy Zaltzman does a great job (apart from when he’s off watching cricket) but it is totally dependent on the panelists. Some episodes are brilliant, some less so.
