Category Archives: Worlds Shortest Radio Show

I’ve always been fascinated by this song. Barry Ryan was a 60s teen idol who first found fame with his twin brother as one half of Paul & Barry Ryan. Then in late ’68, he stormed the charts with this. It was a stupendously histrionic production with which Barry’s vocals simply couldn’t cope. It’s all […]

And back in the mid 80s, he was part of a crew renovating Freddie Mercury’s house in Kensington. Freddie was throwing a huge party for his 40th birthday and needed everything finished in time. The builders worked round the clock managed to get it all done minutes before the guests arrived. Freddie was so grateful […]

Who died in New York this afternoon aged 81. Born in Brooklyn, she was the embodiment of the wise cracking New York broad and I loved her. I saw her fabulous one woman show one Sunday night in Shaftesbury Avenue around 1992 and I think that my date and I were possibly the only heterosexuals […]

Or more precisely, to the National Portrait Gallery with my daughter for the Virginia Woolf exhibition. She’s reading To The Lighthouse for A Level. I did too and loathed what I can remember of it. Still, I thought, maybe I was too immature to appreciate the true genius of Virginia Woolf. This might be a […]

…on a special 6 Music programme yesterday to celebrate what would have been the great man’s 75th birthday. Tributes were paid to Peel the broadcaster and Peel the human being but no mention of Peel the advertising voiceover. I worked with this incarnation in the 90s when his trustworthy tones were in great demand. And […]

76 in a 40 so I can hardly complain. In my defence, I was high up on the flyover over Staples Corner, causing no danger to anyone. But the Old Bill and a laser gun were waiting for me as I came down. When they asked why I was going so fast, I told them […]

Happy birthday to Aaron Paul, better known as Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad. I’m hardly alone in thinking that Breaking Bad is the greatest TV programme ever made. The acting, the dialogue, the characters and the plotlines have all been rightfully lauded. Yet what’s often overlooked is the music. The creators’ use of semi-obscure gems […]

My dad was born here and when he arrived in London in the 1950s, he really was one of McAlpine’s Fusiliers. I should feel a great affinity for Dublin but I don’t. Not because it’s too Irish but because it isn’t Irish enough. I strolled along Grafton Street this afternoon but among the faceless chainstores, […]

The poet Linda Ellis wrote a little ditty called The Dash which says that the most significant part of any any tombstone is the dash between dates of birth and death. Thousands of people were born in 1923, a similar number will die in 2014 but how many could claim to have spent their dash […]

Neither did mine. Neither did anyone’s. But most people turning 50 now have a bit of a do. My brother-in-law Danny had his last night down in Brighton. I love Brighton. It’s where Londoners have always gone for a bit of fresh air and fun. I love its relaxed, “anything goes” attitude, its grand Regency […]