Topic: On the Hour played out on Radio 4 Extra

[Thomas]

Was there any fanfare for this? I don't know if I was aware of it.

Two episodes done so far; the third to be heard on Wednesday at 11pm. Series 2.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fc97b/episodes/player

[holyzombiejesus]

Noting to add. Just bored of seeing that stupid 'ELO & Pryor' thread on the Forums header.

[Ignatius_S]

Was there any fanfare for this? I don't know if I was aware of...

I doubt there was much - it's been repeated a lot on BBC7/Radio 4 Extra and it's a show that I would say gets reasonably regular rotation; the station doesn't push those shows especially hard.

[shh]

Didn't really deserve a thread of its own, but there's a (nominal) news spoof on radio 4 at the moment, Agendum; it's probably more accurate to call it a 'homage' to On the Hour than a parody in its own right. It's vaguely listenable, but they do that thing of mimicking all the traits of the original, with little of the effect - a sort of negative alchemy.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bfydqz

[flotemysost]

Didn't really deserve a thread of its own, but there's a (nominal) news spoof on radio 4 at the moment, Agendum; it's probably more accurate to call it a 'homage' to On the Hour than a parody in its own right. It's vaguely listenable, but they do that thing of mimicking all the traits of the original, with little of the effect - a sort of negative alchemy.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bfydqz

Wow, I'm only a couple of minutes in but that really is the On the Hour/The Day Today/Brass Eye tone and style down to a tee, isn't it? Not a bad thing in itself, but I just can't separate it and listen on its own merit.

Thanks for the link anyway!

[BlodwynPig]

Edmonds!

[Crabwalk]

It’s by Hazeley and Morris. They had John Finnemore on their (excellent) podcast extolling the virtues of The Day Today quite recently.

They are big fans/students of parody and I suppose it’s inevitable that an R4 current affairs spoof by them is going to owe an enormous debt to TDT. But I found it hard to look past in this first episode, despite what I thought were a few very good jokes in there. And a few very obvious nods to comedy fans that they were aware of the debt. For example closing with headlines and including a story about Edmonds on the rampage again.

[Tikwid]

It really is The Day Two-day, isn't it? Almost a perfect fusion of that and the Framley Examiner (I recognised the reference to "the Michael Caine film Hectic Wallops" from the Framley Examiner Podcust). But it definitely scratches the itch I've had for this kind of comedy lately, and it's not on the nose enough to be a true rip off for me.

[the]

Lest we forget Broken News, which was also made by decent writers but ended up as a meek shallow retread of TDT gestures.

I dipped into this very briefly and - although it seems to be aiming at 'R4 news magazine parody' rather than straight reporting - it seems to suffer in the same way. I always admire parodies that go for presentational accuracy, but unfortunately presentational accuracy + warped/silly content never seems enough.

It feels like you've got to come from a position of utter derision about news/media to make a substantial parody of it, anything less than that comes across as a trivial ribbing with a hum of 'cuh what are we like eh' to it.

[flotemysost]

It’s by Hazeley and Morris. They had John Finnemore on their (excellent) podcast extolling the virtues of The Day Today quite recently.

They are big fans/students of parody and I suppose it’s inevitable that an R4 current affairs spoof by them is going to owe an enormous debt to TDT. But I found it hard to look past in this first episode, despite what I thought were a few very good jokes in there. And a few very obvious nods to comedy fans that they were aware of the debt. For example closing with headlines and including a story about Edmonds on the rampage again.

Yep, they're behind the Ladybird parody books aren't they? (Which I believe they also went into lots of detail and research to get right.)

It's undeniably a very dedicated and affectionate homage, but I agree it's hard to get past looking for similarities and enjoy in its own right - as it's so obvious, it's kind of hard to see the point other than as an extended in-joke.

While we're on the topic, my favourite (real-life, and I assume totally unintentional) OTH homage would be Nick Ferrari's show on LBC radio circa a couple of years ago, some classic lines there. 'A book's just a website made of paper!'

[Small Man Big Horse]

Lest we forget Broken News, which was also made by decent writers but ended up as a meek shallow retread of TDT gestures.

I once had a friend who acted in that, who claimed it was doing okay but then a new channel head came along who hated the series, so half way through it's run he shifted it to the middle of the night where it died a quiet death.

[the]

My memory is that it was promoted and everything. Just don't think it made waves with the public, and obviously it got trashed on here.

It just seemed like its reason for existing was that we had rolling news by then, so taking the parodic element of TDT (but nothing else) and applying it to modern media was deemed to be reason enough for making it.

And having references to frozen piss in it didn't help.

[biterbit]

I saw some recordings of the original On The Hour programmes from 1991/92 for sale on eBay - are they the same as the Radio 4 Extra repeats that come round every so often?

[McChesney Duntz]

According to the item description, they're the complete episodes from the original Radio 4 broadcasts, meaning that the second series contains material excised from all subsequent repeats (and the official Warp CD release). Might be worth it if those bits are of a higher sound quality than the ones that have been making the rounds these past few years. Though gambling on thirty-year-old TDK D60s is rather a calculated risk. (Have the two first-series compilations ever been circulated?)

[McChesney Duntz]

Well, I just bought the damn things, so it looks like I'll be finding out soon enough.

[neveragain]

If memory serves, though just from reviews as I never bought the things, the cut moments from the second series are reinstated. They really seemed to vanish from the shops though. Must have sold dreadfully.

Also, Broken News had many a good moment... just a shame about the superior series which preceded it.