Last or least telegenic?

Thank-you.

Can I come do work experience as a sub? :-)

Thick of Ot still ace and funny.

And The Wire still shite.

Happy Christmas Mr Scrooge, er, I mean Mr H!

and look forward to what I can divine.

Philips Digital Compact Cassette. It was meant to be a competitor to the Sony Minidisc and DAT, but the Philips one would also play conventional cassettes.

It didn't really take off because the professionals were quite happy with their DAT and the consumer people were either happy with CD or using Minidisc (this was slightly before everyone and their dog could burn their own CDs easily).

Who amongst us will invite Fraser and his mum around for Christmas?

Somebody has to do it! Who lives the nearest?

Actually it happened last year with the battle between the X factor version of Hallelujah and Jeff Buckley's which was campaigned for.

Please Mr Harrison, stop calling listeners "viewers"!

Merry Christmas to all who made the podcast my favourite listening experience of the last couple of years.

Whether you consider her to be a good singer or not, she's been through the process herself, and won.

The return of an old friend I didn't realize how much I missed. As well as the visual splendour, warmth of sound, heft and secret inscriptions, the tactile reward is one that creeps up on you. The simple joy generated by that sequence of careful unsleeving, index and middle fingers on the hole, thumb on the edge and twirl to turn over before popping on the spindle, is something almost impossible to convey to the digital generations.

As a callow youth I bought my first albums - Piledriver, Tubular Bells, Aladdin Sane on cassette which I had to play on a tiny mono cassette player. My Dad, however, had an 8 track player in the car and an 8 track hi-fi in the house (8 track plus radio - no record deck). One day he came home with an adapter shaped like an 8 track cartridge that allowed you to put in a normal cassette and play it back in glorious stereo. And so, after several months of listening to Tubular Bells in mono, I finally heard the voice of Viv Stanshall introducing the instruments. Joy was unconfined and continued until he bought a "music centre" and we joined the musical mainstream.

to hear Fraser saying he was going to Paris this w/e iirc ? Is he OK ?

that's Kings Cross to Peterborough on tuesday morning sorted can you do another hour to get me to wakefield!! Happy Christmas

While agreeing in the main about the discussion around why some sitcoms last & others don't (Hep's argument is that basically The Thick of It & others of the same ilk have diminishing returns because the characters are unlikeable), one sitcom came to mind which I believe is the exception - Seinfeld. I can't think of one character (either main or supporting) who could be described as likeable. Indeed, I think that was one of the rules for the show, along with nothing would be resolved at the end of an episode, and the characters would never learn a lesson.
Gary

More CDs with hidden "minus 1"-tracks: There's a secret song by Nick Cave & The Dirty Three before track 1 on the "X Files" soundtrack album ("Songs In The Key Of X"). And REM hid a promotional radio spot on the "Murmur" CD.

Was on top form in the 'cast, and AH too. I'm glad they dropped the fiction that "we all" watch crap like the X factor and acknowledged the fact that TV comedy is rarely funny. Now can we move to more coverage of music in the mag and fewer, ideally no, interviews with comedians/other dross TV/media "personalities"?

If I recall correctly, in previous years we've had a brief "Live from the Word Christmas party" podcast round about now. Whilst this year's full-length "proper" podcast was very welcome, and terrifically entertaining as ever, I do worry that times are so straitened at Word Towers that you've not been able to afford a staff Christmas party. Say it ain't so, folks!

There was more to watch on television twenty years ago.

Substantial dramas not written by chuckle brothers writing alumni hacks like Russell T Davies.
Comedies where you actually laughed out loud
Arts programmes that weren't just beginners guides that treated you like someone doing a school course
Documentary film makers with a broader outlook than Peter Andre's love life
Soaps with a political conscience
A radical Channel 4
ITV not having gone to the dogs yet (World In Action, The Bill as a 1 hour quality drama, Hot Metal, Spitting Image in its prime)
Barry Norman not Jonathan Ross

The fast decline of British Television begins at this point

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ITV#The_Broadcasting_Act_of_1990

100s of channels nowadays. Very nice, name one classic piece of television made by Sky One? They've only had two decades.

I was in the Passion Puppets signed to Stiff in the eighties. If you happen to look at the Stiff 12" single S buy 188 the message engraved in the out of the vinyl is 'Good luck Kim' this refers to my pregnant wife Kim (could hardly refer to her as the FPO in these circumstances!) on the pending birth of out daughter Lisa born 23-10-1983 in the middle of a tour with Paul Young. Couldn't resist mentioning this on hearing the podcast glad to hear bilbo is still making a living these days.

Bit late with this but still. Not wishing to defend X Factor but just for the reason that I think the podcast comments are wrong I should say that it's not all about the back story and the close-up reaction shots. The reactions tend not to vary that much. They don't go on about the back story a great deal. My impression, as someone who actually watches more than a minute of the damn show, is that viewers are bothered about how good the performance and, yes it's true, how good the singing was. My work colleagues do mainly discuss the performances and the singing. I know there are those who are sick of this subject and it's no big deal to me but I just think this analysis is wrong and we keep hearing it. I don't really buy this idea that TV is just about faces reacting. People watch for the songs, the content - whether it be sport or music or opinions or interesting facts about animals. We watch the Olympics to see great athletes break records and perform feats not to see them grimace or whoop with joy - much as those facial expressions are featured. So they are not treating us like idiots - that's just an impression those who don't watch these things, but hold prejudiced preconceptions about them, have. It's not how it is it's how some like to think it is. But as I say I am not that bothered, doesn't appear that way I know. I do agree on the Susan Boyle point though.