London Kills Me!

The British press is obsessed with London. Weekend after weekend, I hurl my weighty broadsheet across the room in fury as yet another restaurant/play/shop in the nation's capital gets reviewed, whilst most of my 'locals' never get a mention.

Now, BBC Radio 4 has joined this metropolitan love-fest with their London Season. Don't they realize most people in Britain DON'T live in London, and that the huddled masses outside the M25 couldn't care less about the city?

I wonder why they have embarked upon this season, featuring a debate entitled 'The Greatest City on Earth' and programmes about the history of London, and how it got to be so.. um.. great. YAWN. I would rather a series about Birmingham, Fife or Swansea. Hell, even Gloucester. There are so many rich seams to mine with the stories of Britain's other great conurbations ... whose legends might not be as stitched into the fabric of our national curriculum as London's.

Most irritating of all is a programme, not yet broadcast, called There's More to Life than London, in which apparently "Stuart Cosgrove explains why not everyone wants to live inside the M25". What? really? so the 50 million people who don't live in London have the same reasons for not doing so do they? Blimey, they must be a crazy lot. Perhaps they like the countryside, want a safer environment to bring up their children, don't want to basically burn 20 quid every time they step out of the house, want that house to cost less than two hundred grand, want to buy a pint for less than a fiver, want to know their neighbours and be smiled at in shops. That kind of thing. Yes, there's museums and restaurants and all the smug glee of knowing you're in London, but we know all about that stuff Radio 4 - how about telling us something we don't?

The most appalling part of this programme is the blurb on the website which accompanies it.

"this will be a timely look at how and why, despite political and institutional devolution, we still allow London to dominate British life, and what price we pay for the largely unexamined assumption that everything happens in London".

No BBC, we don't assume that everything happens in London, only those that live there do, and that's the problem!

The Best Edition Of Desert Island Discs yet!

That's a bold claim, I know - and I also can't believe I am four posts into this project, and I haven't mentioned Radio 4 once. That's all set to change - and as you'll soon learn, Radio 4 is my church. I listen to almost every programme it throws at me.

Desert Island Discs is one of the best - and this week the castaway was Frank Cottrell Boyce - screenwriter, playwright, novelist and all round good egg. I've had the pleasure of meeting him a few times - and a more twinkly man it's hard to imagine. He's another of those people whose sheer output can make you feel humbled. 24 Hour Party People and Welcome to Sarajevo would be the pinnacle of most writers careers - but for him, they form only a small part.

Unlike most guests on D.I.D, he didn't have a tough upbringing or any sort of family problems - he loved school, going to church and his parents. He and his wife have seven children because they started having kids and liked it so carried on, and he obviously misses the older ones who've flown the family home. Kirsty Young - often a little restrained - cracked up a couple of times, and succumbed to his charms. I did groan when she asked that tired old chestnut "why do you still live in Liverpool?". But aside from that, the programme was a delightful listen from start to finish, and an inspirational kick up the arse to anyone who's writing anything be it a blog, novel or film script. I loved most of his music choices too - could have done without Big Country, but Noggin the Nog is always welcome - and David Bowie, well as Frank said, his music always seems to tell you that 'life can be a lot more' - what a great philosophy to live by.

You can read Frank's music choices here.