Your Call; Chris Warburton; In Search of Ourselves; Incredible Women; John …

Your Call (5Live) | iPlayer

Chris Warburton (5live) | iPlayer

In Search of Ourselves: A History of Psychology and the Mind (Radio 4) | iPlayer

Incredible Women (Radio 4) | iPlayer

John Dredge: The Nothing To Do With Anything Show

A strange week of Easter break and back to school and travelling for work meant that I found it hard to listen to the radio as it was broadcast. Easier to catch up with programmes at night, on iPlayer or podcast. It's the modern way (as my mum says) and I like it, but in an instant-access world, if you listen to news shows, even hours later, they always seem like ancient history.

Nicky Campbell's excellent Tuesday morning Your Call, for instance, or Chris Warburton's show straight afterwards. They were both concerned with the sacking of David Moyes, filled with opinion and speculation and men gossiping like teenage girls. I have no problem with gossip myself – what one person calls gossip, another calls business talk (listen to Freakonomics.com's superb gossip episode and you'll see what I mean) – but it is strange how it all bursts out on such occasions. What is supposedly a serious news story is treated like a good friend's divorce. It's not the act that matters but the lead-up to it, the disappointments and misunderstandings and hopes. That's the stuff to discuss, though it's also the stuff that gets tired very quickly. So we heard of how players hadn't been giving Moyes respect; of how sacking wasn't the United way; intricate, impassioned discussions of what Manchester United or modern football actually is (I enjoy these, to be honest). Note to producers: Terry Christian was very good.


Get happy: Martin Sixsmith offered psychological insights.
Get happy: Martin Sixsmith offered psychological insights.
Photograph: Gary Calton for the Observer

There are, of course, programmes that seem designed to listen to on iPlayer, in dribs and drabs, or all in one go, like a box-set binge. I'm very much enjoying Martin Sixsmith's series on the "psy" sciences, In Search of Ourselves, A History of Psychology and the Mind. (Top radio tip: if you see anything produced by Sara Parker, as this is, with Alan Hall, always give it a go.) As Sixsmith pointed out in the first episode, modern psychology reaches everywhere: it assesses potential employees, it improves athletes' performances, it provides endless listicles on Facebook (that one was mine). Sixsmith started the series with David Cameron's speech about how his government intended to assess the nation's mood, give us all a happiness index. These days, happiness is almost a duty, another thing to be ticked off on the to-do list: Get baked beans, sort out direct debit, get happy.

Another one for the iPlayer binge is the third series of Rebecca and brother Jeremy Front's Incredible Women. In the hit-and-miss Woman's Hour 15-Minute Drama slot, this was a jolly show, though it can occasionally seem a little like Rebecca Front's audition tape: "Listen! You don't always have to cast me as a decent, plucky, middle-England type! I can do accents!" And I'd have put this series' episodes in a different order: her first character, Danielle Simmons, a TV reality show star, is a character that has been overdone, and Front's vocal mannerisms were reminiscent of Catherine Tate's. (Can we ban all "satire" about reality shows now, please? There's nothing more to say.) Other characters, such as reluctant whistleblower Helen McKee and equestrian Annabel de Lacy, were more offbeat and better for it. This is all a bit picky, by the way: Incredible Women has a warmth and charm that keeps you listening, as well as lovely writing, so give it a go.

If you like your comedy more surreal, more out-there, more bat-shit ding-dong (technical term), then may I recommend John Dredge? I've mentioned his Nothing to Do With Anything Show before, and I'm doing it again, mostly because I admire the way he ploughs his own furrow and ploughs it so deep he's like a man digging his own grave. There is such madness and care in this show! Sound effects, silly lines, layer upon layer of daftness, the only show it vaguely reminds me of is David Quantick's Blagger's Guide, just in the way it requires you to keep up with every line. Last week's show had Frank Sinatra on a walking tour of Scotland (not really) and also him phoning an elephant. Oh, just listen.

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