Be Excellent To Each Other

Shamelessly pinched from YakYak:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mediamonkeyblog/2008/sep/23/radio

Wow!

That was excruciating! Great stuff!

Oh dear. Very much oh dear.

I could hear that gentle incline of rage slowly building in Hardeep's voice. That interviewer should neve have been alloowed on teh radio.

The 'BYYE!' but at the end just sealed the deal.

Crikey. The local radio jock couldn't wait to get rid of him. In most interview walk-offs - like the Bee-Gees, Chris Martin, or that politician Robin Day annoyed - there's at least the merest attempt by the host to avoid an unpleasant situation. In that, little more than "'kthanksbye". Does the host always talk like that, or was he a bit drunk? He sounds like someone's boss at the end of an office Christmas party.

Oh dear oh dear. Neither of them came out of that too well, I think.

I don't know, the asian bloke just seemed quite genuinely baffled to me and putting the interview out it's misery was about the best thing he could have done. It was funny how the interviewer kept trying to be slightly controversial but at the same time was desperately trying not to appear actually racist, what a tool.

Ow...it's really, that's hands over the ears bad. I didn't think they made radio presenters who sound like that anymore.

I quite like Hardeep Singh, and thought he handled that pretty well. It must be acutely embarrassing being interviewed by someone who's making a complete hash of everything because you inadvertently end up looking foolish as well. This Les Ross chap is no newbie by any means either although I'd never heard of him - http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/bbc_wm/les_ross.shtml.

I didn't think Hardeep was doing too well putting up with him till the dj managed to make light of genocide, and then when that was pointed out the dj basically responded "yeah but still!"

The fact Hardeep didn't lay into him then is a credit to him.

MBE!

Really? I'd have given him more credit if he did. All it takes is for good men etc etc.

You never really remember how stupid local radio dj's can be until you hear people like that.

Whenever I inadvertently hear some local radio, I immediately become depressed. Because it exists, and it means people are listening to it.

TMUK: did you happen to hear fx23 being interviewed on his local station (Bradford FM or some horror like that)? I haven't listened to your clip yet but the interviewer in that case was worse, I guarantee it. It was the worst thing I've ever heard, ever.

No, I never heard that, got a link? Be worth it just to hear fx23 speak, innit?

I think it was a live stream only unfortunately

Indeed!

I'm paying this man's wages?

To be honest I don't particularly like Hardeep very much (professionally speaking), he seems to fall between two stools - neither heavyweight enough to convincingly host programmes like Newsnight Review and not entertaining enough to be...well..entertaining.

I like his utterly vacant expression in that photo. Jebus.

I have a very low cringe threshold, I have to leave the room half the time while watching Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is infuritating because I admire the hell out of it but just can't take the cringe. Consequently I cannot listen to local radio. Everytime I have tried, my mouth has started spurting blood with me chewing on my tongue and cheeks.

I'm sort of tempted to listen to the interview, but... agh. I durst not.

Yeah, good point, actually...

I think Hardeep is often a bit of a knob* but that DJ is clearly even more of a knob.


*Based upon a potentially heavily edited and biased episode of Celebrity Apprentice, so perhaps not the best place to form an opinion on someone.

Quite - for someone considered an entertainer, even perhaps a comedian, I've never heard him say anything funny, nor yet be interesting or informed. Which I guess makes The One Show the perfect outlet. He definitely isn't the pillock in that clip, but I'm baffled that he's managed to make any sort of a career in broadcasting.

I've never even heard of ever of them.

I prefer my life this way.

He doesn't seem to exactly exude enthusiasm, is he more well known as a writer or something and just does whatever telly his agent tells him to?

He looks like Richard O'Sullivan circa Man About the House.

To be fair, this is him now, rather than 1976.

And besides, he looked more like Myp back then.

I can imagine loads of old people in white flat caps laughing along to all his shit jokes and then complaining that it's political correctness gone mad when he gets dropped. Fucking olds.

Lee Ross MBE, you mean.

OK, I've not heard it yet (currently being sat in the bar of a plush hotel in Devon awaiting Mrs Chinny to return from a fancy foot rub) but I'll try and put it from the perspective of someone who has been in Les's position. The clip has been knocking about on radio forums for a few days now though so I have little excuse.

The interviewee will be made avaliable to every BBC local station, probably in 15 minute slots. Any producer who wants the interviewee can book it, either to broadcast live or to pre-record for later broadcast. So the interviews are done down an ISDN line so there is no eye to eye contact, and no chatter with the interviewee beforehand (generally in BBC locals a live interviewee will roll up 20 minutes before and you ply them with coffee and the presenter will chat with them.

Generally it is good practice for the producer to have properly researched the subject, briefed the presenter and the presenter should have speed read any book that the interviewee might be plugging picking out a few choice questions to make it look like he's read it from cover to cover.

What appears to have happened in this case is that the producer had not properly prepped the presenter, the presenter had not speed read the book. Les presumably tried to dig himself out of the hole by reverting to type, but the interviewee (who is a known diva) decided to be difficult.

Slapped wrists all round frankly. Les should have known better, the producer needs a bollocking and the interviewee is a (Craster - Ed).

So, an even poorer man's Paul Ross, then.

The clip does end pretty abruptly, but from what I hear of local radio I'm pretty sure it was followed by the words "and now for a record - Photograph by Nickelback. Ooh, heavy hard rock! Don't worry, then we'll be bringing it down with one of my all-time favourites... Say What You Want by Texas."

Coincidentally, the best comedy radio Alan is of course Alan P. Thorpe from Zero magazine.

I worked with some right wierdos in radio. The breakfast show host who always liked to have young boys sitting in on his show. The other breakfast show presenter who was so obviously gay but hadn't even come out to his parents. The presenter caught sucking off his boyfriend in the station carpark (the on-air output went dead so people had to go looking for him), the alcholic who's show went downhill to the point where I had noticed he was a pisshead before his bosses did. And the presenter who admitted to be her aim was to shag her way to the top (a scheme that has worked pretty well which is a shame as she actually is fairly talented). Oh and the ex-presenter who went missing around the time Jonathon King was pulled.....

But there's the splendid radio people as well. The wonderful friends at my wedding on Saturday. People I'd sit and listen to on-air and off all day long. Not the best granted, but wonderful down to earth people. All of whom have never made it as far as they deserve because they aren't self serving cunts who have bummed/shagged thier way to the top.

I'm pissed by the way.

When I did Jerry Springer: The Protest, Terry Christian interviewed me for Radio Manchester.

First question: "So, why don't you want this show to go ahead?"

He just didn't believe he'd got it the wrong way around and tried to do a Paxman on me.

What are you trying to say about Fiona Bruce?

Because you said that I googled them both, as I couldn't remember which one of them it was that I was thinking of. Turns out that I have thought they were the same person all along.

Stewart Lee is, I think, the one that I know, but I thought his name was Terry Christian, Or maybe Stewart Lee. If yo had said either of those names to me, I would have thought of Stewart Lee.

I think it is important that we establish whether you 'know' Stuart Lee or not. Do you mean 'know off' or actually 'know'?

Sorry for my mistake, English master.

I think you mean "know of" not "know off".



Malc

He spelt the name wrong too! Get him!

Hello! *waves* Can you see my posts, Malc?

Hey I'd just got up and it was a genuine question.

lazy boy.

No, I do not know him, and I don't recall ever seeing him, either, but I have probably forgotten many people and he may not have stuck in my head, especially as I thought he was an amalgamation of two different people.

Who's Stuart Lee?

Spelled slightly differently (Stewart), but:

You can forgive the confusion with Terry Christian:

I posted before I saw yours.

The warning you get when that happens seems to be intermittant...

Malc

Ah, OK, thought you had me on 'ignore'

If you read through a page of a thread and hit reply, it warns you only about new posts between you hitting reply and you then submitting your post - not about new posts that may have appeared while you were reading the thread.