Tag: bbc sounds

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The Radio Show Reviews That Never Happened

At the beginning of the year, I briefly considered devoting the last entry of each month to a review of a different programme from BBC Sounds. I listen to a lot of their audio comedy and drama, so it seemed like a workable idea at the time.

I abandoned the plan soon after, however, and there are a few reasons behind that decision. The saved draft from 19 January 2026 included a list of the shows I thought I might cover. Here they are in the order they were written down:

The list also illustrates the first problem with the idea: whatever I reviewed would need to be available at the time. Like most streaming platforms, BBC Sounds removes programmes after a set period.

The entries with links were still active at the time of writing this entry, so if I’d decided in January that the topic for May would be Clare in the Community, readers wouldn’t be able to listen for themselves.

Which brings me to the second factor behind the abandonment: how much time I have available to review them.

When I listened to each of these programmes for the first time, it was on an informal basis where I wasn’t necessarily taking in every word but gaining a general sense of the plot. By contrast, an effective review needs active listening, for which I would need to go back and take notes. Fukushima, for instance, contains more than three hours of script, time I doubt I would be able to spare.

When I was studying for my M.Litt Writing Practice & Study degree, I was roped into writing three book reviews for the university magazine. I say three, but for one of these, I’d written the review before the tutor told me she’d only lent me the book for interest; it was still accepted for publication, so my effort wasn’t wasted. It was rewarding to see the finished product, but there was so much input for an article that took five minutes to read.

My third and final reason is the most detailed one.

Let me take you back to a banner advert I used to encounter on the Internet in the 1990s. The headline was Tired of seeing movies based on one guy’s opinion? I’ve long forgotten the name of the service, but it would have been an early aggregator for audience reviews.

At the time, I thought this was a fantastic idea. If I was unsure about Titanic or The Matrix, then instead of relying on the film review in the paper, I could see what others thought before buying a ticket.

But with the crowd-as-reviewer model now the more dominant one, I can see the flaw in hindsight. That one guy, as they put it, generally understood structure, nuance and how to convey this to readers. He was worth a dozen armchair critics who instead based their reviews on the attractiveness of Kate Winslet or had a bee in their bonnet about the science of the titular Matrix.

As such, I asked myself whether we really need any more reviews, albeit in a more niche art-form than cinema. Taken with the other two reasons, my answer – at least for the moment – is in the negative.

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Listening to Lunar Lore

Like millions of people over the last few weeks, I’ve been following the progress of the Artemis II project to orbit the moon and return home.

I’m no expert on space, but the mission appears to have been a textbook one. The splashdown was even timed perfectly for primetime Friday night TV in the US, although we in the UK had to stay up somewhat later.

Since the last visit to the moon, computing power and data rates have improved enormously, offering a multimedia experience that was still science fiction in 1972. Despite this, I largely followed the trip in audio form.

BBC Sounds already had an podcast called 13 Minutes to the Moon that was resurrected for the occasion. The title is somewhat misleading because the episodes aren’t 13 minutes long; rather, it orginally covered the final 13 minutes before the Apollo 11 landing.

In its most recent form, Maggie Aderin from The Sky at Night presented a daily summary with guests including the astronaut Tim Peake.

Oddly enough, the lack of visual information didn’t diminish the coverage at all. At times, in fact, it helped when the presenters stepped in with context and small details that a video stream probably wouldn’t have paused to explain. I’ve mentioned before that I enjoy audio drama, and listening to each update felt like the next part of the saga.

These missions are all but guaranteed to seep their way into popular culture over the next few years because we’ve seen this pattern before.

We’ll see retrospective documentaries and scripted dramas exploring the relationships between the crew members. We’ll see a glut of novels using space travel as a backdrop or a metaphor, much like we’ve seen terrorist attacks used since 2001.

Some works will be thoughtful, and a good many more will – frankly – be opportunistic. Either way, they’ll be trying to make sense of a moment that’s not only historic, but already feels that way.

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Understanding Ephemerality

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been catching up on the When It Hits the Fan podcast on BBC Sounds. It’s advertised as an insider’s view of how critical stories are managed from a public relations point of view. David Yelland, a former editor of The Sun, presents alongside former Royal communications advisor Simon Lewis.

Considering their backgrounds, the two sometimes bring differing or even opposite perspectives, yet there is a surprising crossover of agreement. Where is a debate, these are always respectful. Many other podcasts could learn from this.

Episodes tend to centre around how a communications lead will shape a message to influence the perception of its subject while staying within legal and ethical boundaries. There are also mini-episodes in how to manage what they describe as your ‘own personal PR’, from negotiating a salary to dealing with mismanagement from bosses.

Having heard so many episodes spread over the last years, I’ve found it interesting how language, timing and framing determine whether a story escalates or fizzles out in the short-term. In the long-term, almost every story becomes forgettable to a greater or lesser extent.

One example discussed was an incident from Normandy in June 2024 when Rishi Sunak, who left a D-Day commemoration early This was a hot topic at the time, especially as it happened during an election campaign, but has not become a defining moment in his political career.

Then there was the rebranding of Jaguar in November 2024. This attracted a lot of discussion on release, possibly in the hope of generating buzz and therefore free advertising. In the last 12 months, however, this has generally been met by public indifference.

As I write this, I’m reminded of this what a senior manager told my team a few years back: “Look back through your old emails. What was the meaning of life a month ago is probably irrelevant today.’ It’s the same with going through old blog entries. Who remembers when I talked about the Sheree Mack plagiarism scandal or the list of forgotten Booker Prize winners?

In short, When It Hits the Fan is a offers an insight into the power of persuasive language when it matters, yet it’s a useful reminder that many stories burn brightly before quickly becoming ephemera. A new episode is currently being posted every week.