Have I mentioned how much I love the BBC? Probably not for a while now so I'll say it again, I love the BBC. In fact my TV license will be coming up for renewal and I will gladly pay the 150 GBPs. Not only do I love the BBC for the TV but I ADORE the radio.
Keeping in mind that I'm basically a latte-drinking, democratic-voting, New York Times- reading, NPR-listening type of American; this love of BBC Radio should not be surprising. But Radio 4 is really quite good. Every morning I wake up to the shipping report which is incomprehensible if you are half asleep and have no clue about the geography of the place. Followed by a news briefing, prayer for the day(!), then Farming Today. How is it possible that I actually listen to all this before 6am? I don't know but I do and I love it. Then at 6am (after those weird six pips which signal the top of every hour)the Today show starts with With Edward Stourton, Carolyn Quinn and this bellicose guy named John Humphreys - who is sort of like your crabbiest uncle. Yet some how they let him interview heads of state, captains of industry and other assorted high falutin' types - today it was the head of the Bank of England for god's sake. He gets in fights with them, cuts them off, talks over them. It's amazing.
Anyway the point of this blog is the fact that every week they announce some horrible piece of news. The country is obese, it drinks too much, has the worst children, the schools are crap, they lost the ashes to OZ, horror horror horror. This used to worry me, I thought I had made a bad decision moving to this land, but it turns out its just some collective moaning session. Its all over by 9am and we are all at work and its all forgotten until 6am tomorrow morning.
I think its because its such a small place, they all listen to the same news and its cathartic.
Tonight - its the Queen's Speech. Wonder how that will go...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment