December 2024 - I Can't Get Over 2024

I Can't Get Over 2024 is a look back at the year presented by Esyllt Sears and I for BBC Radio Wales - featuring guests, archive and an ill-advised attempt at a political package recorded in Cardiff Bay. It's on-air in Christmas week, but you can get hold of the whole thing early by heading to BBC Sounds!

There are also 98 episodes (or 100 if you count the Best Ofs) of our comedy history podcast I'm So Not Over It currently available wherever you get your podcasts, including our most recent run of interviews featuring Elis James, Rosie Holt, Gav Murphy, Anu Vaidyanathan and Gemma Arrowsmith, as well as two live editions from the Aberystwyth Comedy Festival featuring Eleanor Morton. 

 

I have just recorded a short piece for Rosie Holt's podcast NonCensored as Tim Dolton - all about the Labour party's attitude to renationalizing the railways, which should be out on Friday 6th December.

And I've been a guest, as myself this time, on Out Of Character with Alex Lynch, all about sketch, sitcom and character comedy talking about some of the BBC Wales and S4C sketch shows I've worked on including Tourist Trap, O'r Diwedd, Pantheon Of Heroes as well as the recent Rik Mayall and Unfinished documentaries I made for BBC Radio 4.

And finally, on BBC Sounds right now, the fifth and final series of the all-female sketch show Welcome Strangers is currently available. I acted as script editor for the show which, this time, features guest narrators Dame Sian Phillips, Di Botcher, Katy Wix and Suzanne Packer.

I should write a proper post about this show at some point. We did five series of Welcome Strangers and, thinking back, I'm not sure any of them went according to plan. Across the run we've done audience, non-audience, remote and studio recordings - meaning the build-up to each series felt wildly different. I'm also 99% sure we broke the record for "shortest gap between two distinct radio series" with series 2 and 3 going out just a few weeks apart. Series 1-4 were narrated by the brilliant Ruth Madoc which makes it all the weirder that the reason I think we hold the record for shortest gap between radio series is that I know for a fact we are beat on on TV by Hi-de-Hi.

October 2024: I'm So Not Over It with Elis James

 

Esyllt Sears and I have relaunched our comedy history podcast. The new series of I'm So Not Over It has begun, kicking off with special guest Elis James. It is available below - and wherever you get your podcasts.

October 2024 - I'm So Not Over It with Elis James and Eleanor Morton

We've rebranded the podcast! The Xennial Dome is now called I'm So Not Over It and our first episode under the new name is out now!

Elis James joins Esyllt Sears and I to tell us all about growing up in Carmarthen, how he beat a girl he fancied 1500-nil on a Welsh language TV quiz show and why he thought the death of Diana was a conspiracy dreamt up by bored Welsh language parents.

If we've done everything correctly, then on the same feed you'll find 80+ episodes of the Independent Podcast Award nominated show The Xennial Dome, culminating in two Best Of episodes (Part I and Part II) and across the month of October there'll be 4 more interviews plus regular episodes examining "This Month In History". If I can stick to the editing schedule.

Also, tickets for "The Xennial Dome" live at Aberyswyth Comedy Festival on Sunday 6th October are available here with special guest Eleanor Morton (Yes, it's under the old name, but it's fine, we'll have fun).

October 2024 - I'm So Not Over It with Elis James

 

We've rebranded the podcast! The Xennial Dome is now called I'm So Not Over It and our first episode under the new name is released on 3rd of October.

Elis James joins Esyllt Sears and I live at the London Welsh Centre to tell us all about growing up in Carmarthen, how he beat a girl he fancied 1500-nil on a Welsh language TV quiz show and why he thought the death of Diana was a conspiracy dreamt up by bored Welsh language parents. We also discuss looking fashionable in Carmarthen and how far Welsh people would drive for a McDonald in the 90s (it's MILES). 

If we've done everything correctly, then on the same feed you'll find 80+ episodes of the Independent Podcast Award nominated show The Xennial Dome, culminating in two Best Of episodes (Part I and Part II) and across the month of October there'll be 4 more interviews plus regular episodes examining "This Month In History". If I can stick to the editing schedule.

Also, tickets for "The Xennial Dome" live at Aberyswyth Comedy Festival on Sunday 6th October are available here. (Yes, it's under the old name, but it's fine, we'll have fun).

October 2024 - Finalists!

The Xennial Dome has been nominated in the Best Comedy category at the Independent Podcast Awards!

 

By chance, we're running a few Best Of episodes throughout September, so click the link, search for us in your podcast player of choice or check out the playlist below to find out more. 

And come and see us at the Aberystwyth Comedy Festival on 6th October!

September 2024 - The Xennial Dome Is Still Under Construction

The Xennial Dome has been nominated in the Best Comedy category at the Independent Podcast Awards alongside some genuinely fantastic shows. It's all very exciting.

Right now, the Dome itself is very much Under Construction. The podcast, which Esyllt Sears and I have presented on-and-off for three years (and more on than off, to be fair to us), is having a bit of an overhaul/rebrand right now. There's an episode explaining what is going on here as well as two best-of episodes (Part 1 and Part 2) ahead of a relaunch in October. 

I certainly wasn't going to let the opportunity to put an Under Construction image on the website pass us by. Our one is from Pixabay but there's LOADS MORE here.

September 2024 - The Xennial Dome Is Under Construction.

 

The Xennial Dome is under construction. The podcast which Esyllt Sears and I have presented on-and-off for three years (and more on than off, to be fair to us) is having a bit of an overhaul/rebrand. There's an episode explaining what is going on here and then there'll be a few best-of episodes on the feed before we relaunch in October. 

I certainly wasn't going to let the opportunity to put an Under Construction image on the website pass us by. Our one is from Pixabay but there's LOADS MORE here.

August 2024 - TL;DR

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TL;DR is a brand new series on BBC Radio 4 presented by Catherine Bohart which looks back at a single, massive news story from the ground-up. Friday's episode was all about Ukraine and Russia - and I guess I provided the "ground" while Sunil Patel and historian Julia Leikin provided the "up". It's currently available on BBC Sounds.

June 2024 - Rik Mayall, Panglobal Phenomenon

In 2004, Rik Mayall was commissioned by Harper Collins to write an autobiography. Given Rik's towering achievements in film and TV and the drama surrounding a serious quad bike accident in 1998, a memoir by Rik Mayall would be a sure-fire best seller.

There was only one problem. Rik really didn’t want to write an autobiography.

With co-writer Max Kinnings, Rik submitted Bigger Than Hitler, Better Than Christ - a memoir by THE Rik Mayall, a monstrous egomaniac, keen to tell his absurd, self-aggrandizing life-story about how he'd waged a 30 year war on showbusiness.

Rik’s method of writing involved “jamming”, improvising in front of  constantly rolling dictaphone - and it’s these recordings which form the backbone of Rik Mayall, Panglobal Phenomenon.

Presented by Max himself, I've produced this show for BBC Radio 4's Archive On 4 slot, and it has been the screensaver inside my brain for months now. It features interviews with Ben Elton, Helen Lederer, Peter Richardson, Bob Baldwin, Sanjeev Kohli as well as publisher, Trevor Dolby, and Rik's children - who help provide context to the audio (and correct a few errors on the way!) I've produced it for Mighty Bunny productions with Simon Nicholls as exec producer and archive restoration by Andy Goddard - who has thrown absolutely everything at these 20 year old dictaphone recordings. The show is on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 1st June at 8pm and will be on BBC Sounds afterwards.

Also available on BBC Sounds (and part of the same Archive On 4 strand) is Gareth Gwynn Hasn't Fin-, a documentary about unfinished and abandoned projects. Covering everything from the Beach Boys Smile to the Sagrada Familia, and an awful lot in between, it attempts deal with some of the reasons things might fall by the wayside - but also why we're so fascinated by the stories of things that fail. 

The press release I wasn't allowed to use is here and the photos that got rejected by the BBC Sounds photo editor are here - and the whole thing was the subject to a suitably incomplete review in the Radio Times (left).

May 2024 - Gareth Gwynn Hasn't Fin-

Hey Jess, for the full show description on BBC Sounds, can we just take a few paras from the pitch doc and give them a tweak? I'll copy and paste some bits below…

Gareth Gwynn presents an exploration into all things uncompleted.  Books, films, TV shows, songs, albums, sonatas, painting, technologies, business plans, building projects - anything where the creator has (through their own choice or not) jacked the whole thing in. CHECK WE STILL DO A BUILDING IN THE FINISHED EDIT

They say “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – but by Gareth’s maths, that leaves 2,111,199 steps which could be your last – and those are the ones he’s interested in. I THINK IM GOING TO USE THE STEPS THING IN THE SHOW SO REPLACE??

This show (which, it will become apparent, is far from finished itself - ARE WE STILL DOING THIS? SOUNDS SHIT WHEN YOU READ IT LIKE THAT) is an attempt to look failure in the eye - and discover exactly what’s going on when someone calls it quits. Each of the programme’s five (THREE ? IS IT THREE NOW?) sections explores a different reason or motivation for a creative work being unfinished - from the DELETE THIS. SAY WHAT'S IN IT. SMILE, LORRAINE HANSBERRY, JERRY LEWIS, KEITH HARING ,ROBIN OF SHERWOOD ETC- AND WE INTERVIEW ANGELA BARNES, JAE BRODERICK KIRSTIN WONG, JASON HAZELEY, BARNABY EATON-JONES, CHRIS KENDALL ETCETC

We'll find out what having a lumpen, half-finished piece of work on a CV really means for an artist - and for their audience. Do those fans chomping at the bit for some long lost album really want to hear it? Is sub-par than nothing? And, for the artist, what does it take to walk-away? What does it do to the creator’s mind to leave it there? What’s the psychological toil of an unfinished project on your next artistic adventure?

IS THAT ENOUGH TO GO ON? LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED MORE.

 

==

(So, I got told I wasn't allowed to use the above as the official write-up on the BBC webpage so it has ended up here. Same goes for the image at the top, which was turned down for all sorts of reasons! You can head to the BBC page to see what we did get away with).

April 2024 - September 1998

Last week, I appeared on the penultimate edition of The Now Show to talk about the internet and AI. The show itself first started in September 1998, the same month that Google launched, which gave me just enough of an excuse to look at the way the BBC covered the World Wide Web back in the mid-90s. It's is currently available on BBC Sounds.

I'll be appearing on next week's edition of Kiri's Comedy Club on BBC Radio Wales/BBC Sounds to talk about topical comedy - And as someone who turned up on a topical comedy show to make fun of the title sequence of a 30 year old tech show, I'm sure you can see why.

I also recently featured as Mark Drakeford (i.e. I wore a red jumper) on NonCensored with Rosie Holt and over on The Xennial Dome, we've got a very special edition  out this week, marking the 40th birthday of former guest Stuart Laws. Stu is back to look back at the month of his birth - April 1986 - which saw the release of Splash and the launch of the Twirl.

February 2024 - United Thingdom

O'r Diwedd 2023 is still available on S4C Clic and BBC iPlayer (with english subtitles). United Thingdom is currently available on BBC Sounds.

And tickets are now available for The Xennial Dome Live at Machynlleth Comedy Festival on 5th May. New episodes of the show are released every Tuesday and should be available on the playlist below.

January 2024 - O'r Diwedd 2023

 

Blwyddyn arall 👀 That’s a wrap! 🎬

📺 O’r Diwedd 2023
▶️ S4C Clic & @BBCiPlayer #yearinreview #lol #pastiche #humour #satire #funny #tudurowen #lookback #newyear #atlast #cymru #cymraeg #wales #welsh #comedy #comedian #comedians #lolz #satirical pic.twitter.com/OnvsWXjTfu

— S4C 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@S4C) December 31, 2023

O'r Diwedd 2023 is still available on BBC iPlayer and S4C Clic. It's in Welsh (with English subtitles available) and is a rattle through the year's news in sketches. Politics being what it is, it could also see the final outing for Mark Drakeford (Tudur Owen) and Andrew RT Davies (Sian Harries), in this form at least.

A few other things I've worked on have popped back online for 2024. The entirity of the BBC One Wales TV show Tourist Trap is currently available on BBC iPlayer as is Ministry Of Happiness - a two-part sitcom based on the early years of radio in Wales. On its inaugaral broadcast, I did a live tweet-along with the facts behind the story, which are still available here and here. 

Talking of tweet-alongs, BBC Radio 4 repeated Gareth Gwynn's Alternative Archive this week - an edition of Archive On 4 which looks at radio in different universes. I had a go at tweeting along to that too, but it's tricky going back to a show you did five years ago. 

And on the subject of the past, The Xennial Dome's Little Dome continues to be released every week with new episodes landing on Tuesdays. There should be a playlist below.