Here Be Dragons

Here Be Dragons is back on Saturday afternoons on BBC Radio Wales.

The sketch show features Cariad Lloyd, Elis James, Lloyd Langford, Nadia Kamil, Sian Harries and was written by them together with Benjamin Partridge, Jordan Brookes, Kayleigh Llewellyn and myself - Some of whom are in this photo.

Although Episode 1 only went out on Saturday, BBC Radio Wales have put the first three episodes online already, as well as a short animation featuring a magpie. 

While you're on the BBC Radio Wales website, you'll be able to listen to my most recent weekend shows, which include interviews with Milton Jones and John Inman - the man behind the rudder of BBC Four's remarkable All Aboard! 

I also took the opportunity to play the cut-ups and clips I'd prepared for the final episode of BBC Radio 4's Vote Now Show which history rendered obsolete... You can hear the jokes and clips that did make it on the BBC Radio 4 website. 

Sketchland

Sketchland is a brand new comedy show produced by BBC Scotland showcasing up-and-coming Scottish writers and performers. Together with Jon Hunter, I script edited the show all about leaving home, which is currently available on BBC iPlayer together with all sorts of online extras.  

Gareth Gwynn's Little Book Of Welsh Rock

If I've set this up correctly then this post should appear online just after Gareth Gwynn's Little Book Of Welsh Rock has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. 

If you missed it, don't worry - It is now available on the BBC Radio 4 website.

The show is a sort-of sequel to last year's Celtic Media Award Nominated Gareth Gwynn's Little Book Of Welsh Independence (also online, if you haven't heard it), and was an absolute joy to make.

Having said that, the programme has left a permanent mark on my record collection and could be the only radio show where the entirety of the presenter's fee ended up being ploughed back into records (That's proper records. Not downloads. My Welsh is very poor so I really need the lyric booklets). 

It was such a huge topic to cover, and our contributors all so helpful, the show could easily have been an hour - Hours, even. That's why I wanted to write this post, which acts as a cross between "References" and "Further reading".

First of all, I want you to stop what you are doing right now and enjoy Gareth Potter's fantastic S4C documentary "Gadael yr 20fed Ganrif". It's on YouTube and subtitled so you have no excuse.

As it is both about music and subtitled it looks like it was built to be broadcast on BBC Four on a Friday night - Like a cross between their usual Friday night music docs and The Killing. A ratings winner if ever I saw one.

Also, do seek out our impartial American, Sarah Hill's book " Blerwytirhwng? - ... " and if you want to hear a Mancunian take on all this, check out  Andy Vottel and James Hale's BBC Radio 4 documentary from a few years ago Free Wales Harmony.

And finally, a little sample of the sort of thing I'll undoubtedly now be trying to creep onto my BBC Radio Wales shows...

February 2015

On 31st January, Lloyd Langford and I stepped in to cover Rhod Gilbert's BBC Radio Wales show. The whole thing is still available both on the Radio Wales website and as a podcast, where you'll also find plenty of other editions of the show, featuring a perfectly healthy Rhod Gilbert.

I've also been writing for The Now Show, contributing material to sections such as this one, taken from last Friday's show.

Twisted 2014

On the 29th - 31st December, I presented Gareth Gwynn's Twisted 2014 on BBC Radio Wales - A three-part look back at the year featuring myself, Derek Brockway, Chris Day, Clive Roderick and a whole bunch of cut-ups. 

The three editions will be on BBC iPlayer Radio for a month: 

Twisted 2014 - Part 1
Twisted 2014 - Part 2
Twisted 2014 - Part 3

And if wading through the music, or even clicking a link, seems a bit too much - there are some best-bits from the show on the Audioboo playlist below.

With those done, I'm now back to Sunday mornings on Radio Wales. I'll also be back, contributing material to the XFM Breakfast Show with Jon Holmes when that returns on Monday.

And in other news, a second series of the award-winning sketch show Here Be Dragons will be recording in London this month - Tickets are now available.

Lily Allen (And More)

As Lily Allen's potty mouth is in the news, I can probably get away with posting this again...

It's all the apologies from Lily Allen's set at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Glasgow (together with a few other bits and bobs from my BBC Radio Wales Show)

The Leak With Tom Price

On Friday night, I was a guest on the brand new BBC Radio Wales topical show The Leak with Tom Price.

The show was recorded in front of a studio audience on the Thursday night and because we were recording before the Scottish Referendum polls closed, we did two versions of the opening 10mins, one for a No, one for a Yes.


Obviously, the No version which went out on-air, and is now available on the Radio Wales website and The Leak Podcast, however the 9 minutes which would have been consigned to the cutting-room floor has found its way onto the BBC Radio Wales Website, as a little online extra.

(Afterwards, in the bar, someone came up to me to say they'd enjoyed the show but were very, very distressed at the fact Scotland had decided to leave the Union. She couldn't believe it had actually happened and that it was all over for the United Kingdom. Turns out she'd turned up late and only caught "Version 2" of the show. Although I put her straight on what had happened, this had still left enough time for her to text her mum, friends and put this historic false-result it on Twitter).

Talking of BBC Radio Wales, after a short break, I'm back on the early-shift on Sunday mornings, the most recent edition of which can be found here together with clips and best-bits - And on the subject of early-morning radio, I'll be continuing to throw comedic-logs onto the fire that is the XFM Breakfast Show with Jon Holmes which has a podcast and, seemingly, bits and bobs spread across two Soundclouds.

Truth

Episode 3 of Passing On is on iPlayer right now. If you haven't heard it yet, go and give it a listen. 

Go on. Otherwise the next bit is a spoiler. 

Done that? Good. Here's the full version of "Truth", the song which Matthew (the brilliant Keiron Self) "sings" at the end of the episode, uploaded by producer Benjamin Partridge. 

Passing On

Passing On, a brand new sitcom I've written starring Keiron Self, Richard Elis, Melangell Dolma, Felicity Montagu, Katy Wix, Simon Armstrong, Gareth Milton and produced by Benjamin Partridge for Zipline Creative, starts this Friday on BBC Radio Wales.

Now I could tell you all about it, but I've already done that for the Western Mail in an article which you can find here that explains exactly where the idea came from and how much is based in real life (Quick answer: More than I'd like to admit). 

Plus the guys at Zipline Creative have also prepared a couple of behind the scenes videos in which we all seem to be having a jolly good time.

The first episode of Passing On will be broadcast on BBC Radio Wales on Friday at 6.30pm. It'll be repeated on Saturday at 1pm and then, assuming that iPlayer stays upright, will be available to listen to online via the BBC Radio Wales website.

While you're on the BBC Radio Wales website, you'll also be able to listen back to the most recent edition of my Saturday Afternoon Show which I've presenting with Nadia Kamil and Sian Harries  (and its lo-fi Sunday morning equivalent which I do on my own). Among our features is the Six Degrees Of Separation experiment, in which we see just how far we can get by asking our guests on the show to recommended who we speak to the following week.

We started with ice-cream-van lady Zoe Yearsley who nominated florist Louise Latham. She put us in touch with singer Mark Llewellyn Evans who led us to Birds Of A Feather star Linda Robson, all of whom have been fantastic. Next week we're speaking to Lesley Joseph. I think we're doing very well indeed, but I don't think we're one step away from Nadia Kamil's desired ending point, Vladimir Putin.

Aside from that, I've also been busy working on The News Quiz and the XFM Breakfast Show with Jon Holmes. If you're not up in time for a breakfast show, I'd usually point you towards the podcast or the Soundcloud below, but this week Jon and the team are hosting a 12 hour breakfast show, starting at 10pm on Thursday 24th July, and running until 10am the following morning. As if breakfast radio isn't tiring enough...

Saturday Afternoons on BBC Radio Wales

From the 28th June, Nadia Kamil and I will be back on BBC Radio Wales, taking over Saturday Afternoons from 4-7pm for the next six weeks.

If you can't catch us live, each show will be available on the BBC Radio Wales website for seven days (Perhaps longer. There's still fragments of the shows we did last year dotted about online)

I'll still be doing the Sunday morning show too, so you can also listen back to that and try and work out whether I bothered going to sleep in the interim or not. 

Here Be Dragons Again

If you missed it the first time around, BBC Radio Wales are currently repeating Here Be Dragons on Friday nights at 6.30pm (and on iPlayer afterwards). They've even made one of these to promote it. 

I'm not sure if anyone has come up with a name for these sort of "shareable online billboards" yet. Maybe I will and become the next Ben Hammersley. 

On the subject of BBC Radio Wales projects, we've just finished recording Passing On - A new sitcom which I've written, is being produced by Benjamin Partridge and Zipline Creative and stars Keiron Self, Richard Elis, Melangell Dolma and Felicity Montagu.

Zipline Creative are much better at promotion than I'll ever be, so there's press releases and photos and all sorts on their website if you fancy a look. That'll go out in late July. 

Aside from that I have/will spent/spend the last/next few weeks writing jokes for HIGNFY, The Now Show, The News Quiz, the XFM Breakfast Show with Jon Holmes and anyone else who asks. Plus you'll find me here on Sundays and here forever after the BBC decided that documentaries don't come off iPlayer.

Gareth Gwynn's Little Book Of Welsh Independence

On Friday at 11am, BBC Radio 4 will broadcast Gareth Gwynn's Little Book Of Welsh Independence.

Having co-written 3 comedy series on Welsh History and one on Welsh Broadcasting, tackling Welsh Independence really feels like the Welsh End-Of-Level Boss.

It was fascinating to make, I met some brilliant people who were all very nice about the fact Radio 4 had sent a comedy writer to interview them rather than someone in a tie - and I certainly don't envy producer Steven Rajam on having to squeeze it into 27mins. I hope you like it.

I should also mention, there's a 5 hour edit of the show available. That's not on iPlayer, but to hear it you need to buy me a drink and say "So, Welsh Independence, what's that all about, then?" and I'll be off...

Aside from that, the second part of my Twisted History of BBC Wales goes out on Saturday at 1pm. Episode 1 should be on iPlayer right now, and if it isn't BBC Radio Wales have saved you a lot of bother by Audiobooing some of the best bits...

Happy Birthday BBC Cymru Wales

Last weekend, BBC Cymru Wales celebrated it's fiftieth anniversary. There were programmes all over BBC Wales television and radio to mark the occasion, including one presented by myself - Gareth Gwynn's Twisted History of BBC Wales. The show featured Elis James, Nadia Kamil, Chris Day, David Woodward, Bethan Elfyn, Jason Mohammed, Alan Thompson and Mal Pope who all knew they were going to be in the show and a host of other BBC Radio Wales names who didn't.

listen to ‘.@garethgwynn & Tom Jones on @BBCWales' launch 50 yrs ago today. Whole show at 2pm bbc.co.uk/radiowales’ on Audioboo

The whole hour-long show is currently on iPlayer. It'll then be broken down into half-hour episodes and repeated in future weeks.

I should say that one unexpected highlight of making the programme was this appearance as part of BBC Two Wales' retro-continuity on the Saturday evening.

I'd never seen that logo before. The campaign to bring it back starts here. It's even better than those little birds.