Speechification

Last Christmas post for me I think. Adam Hart-Davis exploring the inventions that make Christmas work (not flying reindeer, though. Still a mystery). A special edition of his Eureka Years show. Lovely (MP3).

In Iceland they have thirteen Santas—and some of them are quite naughty, even frightening. 22 lovely minutes from the World Service Boxing Day morning (also available as part of The World Service’s excellent documentaries podcast, I think). More info on the programme page.

And James, I’ll see your ridiculous baubles and raise you a magnificent animated Santa’s sleigh!

Tim Bodett’s small town stories could easily slip into folksiness, but that’s not the root of his writing. As he writes on his website: “I’m not a more decent person because of rural life, but I act more decently than I probably would if I didn’t have to see these people again.” BBC7 is broadcasting his series of Alaskan Christmas stories, Christmastime at the End of the Road, and their gentle, Keillor-esque drollery seems like a pretty good expression of the season to me. [MP3]

P.S. How do you like them Christmas decorations? The animated gif throwdown starts here.

Kick-starting Christmas Week at Speechification, from a series about Christmas preparations that went out on Radio 4 last year, a lovely fifteen minutes from John Guest, the Severn Valley Railway’s Santa. How can you go wrong? MP3.

(and what do you think of the Christmas decorations?)

Right. This is my last Christmas post. Honest. A lovely (and very Christmassy) half-hour feature about the little white ponies breed specially for Panto (Cinderella usually). It’s a classic radio doc subject: a rather melancholy sound portrait of a vanishing world. There used to be lots of specialist breeders of Shetlands for showbiz but since circuses don’t want animals any more now there’s only one. The programme was recorded by Sarah Parker at the King’s Theatre Edinburgh and the Hall Theatre Dorking. Here’s more about it from a press release and here’s the MP3.

Developing speechification’s Christmas theme, here’s one of four 15-minute docs about Christmas preparations. This one was recorded on a famous goose farm in Worcestershire. It’s an unpretentious programme but you couldn’t find a better snapshot of Britain right now: food, class, labour, rural economics, immigration… It’s all here (and the farm’s matriarch sounds exactly like a posh French & Saunders character). Here’s an MP3 (and here’s an earlier episode - about a nativity play - that’ll make you cry: MP3).

I can’t grab the MP3 right now, I’m sitting at my Mother-In-Law’s computer, in her front room, next to the tree, while the younger members of the family play ‘it’ (or ‘tic’ or ‘tag’ depending where you’re from) and sprouts get ‘prepared’. And she’s not equipped with AudioHijack. But Steve suggested it would be nice for us all to link to a Christmassy programme and the festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge is the most Christmassy thing I can think of. Personally, as a lapsed Methodist agnostic, I’m not that bothered about the religious aspect, but the sound of it is extraordinary. Music that’s been tested over the centuries to inspire wonder, joy and fellow-feeling. Find a quiet hour and a half sometime this Christmas, pour yourself a glass of something special, slip some headphones on and bathe yourself in the sound of civilisation. The RealAudio stream is here.