#raji james

[mizgnomer]

Behind the Scenes of Army of Ghosts/Doomsday (Part 19)  

Excerpts from TV Week’s interview with Tracy-Ann Oberman [who plays Yvonne Hartman, head of Torchwood]:

“Yvonne’s not so much evil as obsessed with Torchwood,” says Oberman.  “The organisation is good unless you’re an alien and, in Yvonne’s eyes, the Doctor is an alien.”

But he’s not the only fly in Yvonne’s ointment, as the Cybermen are on the rampage again.  “They are really scary,” she says about coming face-to-face with them on set.

“The blokes who play them are gorgeous-male specimens to die for. You can be having a good old chat with them, but the moment they’re clipped into those metal suits with the helmets, they are terrifying. And if they tread on your feet it’s really painful!”

She admits that getting the part in Doctor Who was a dream come true.  “I’ve always been one of that rare breed of women who are massive sci-fi fans and I’m obsessed with Doctor Who,” she says.  “David Tennant and I sat talking about sonic screwdrivers and our favorite Doctors. It was a special moment when I saw the Tardis for the first time - brilliant.”

Link to [ part one ] of the Army of Ghosts/Doomsday Behind-the-scenes posts or click the #whoBtsDoom tag, or the full episode list [ here ]

[sconesfortea]

Countdown to the 60th anniversary rewatch | 2.12: Army of Ghosts

[differenthead]

Volume 256

Listen to Different Head, Vol. 256: "Compassion" (Jun. 10, 2023) byDifferent Head on hearthis.at

Download

0:00:00 — "X Offender" (Single Version) by Blondie (1976)

0:02:58 — "Modern Girl" by James Freud & The Radio Stars (1980)

0:06:16 — DJ

0:10:30 — "Wide Eyed One" by A Drop in the Gray (1984)

0:14:12 — "Compassion" by P.S. Personal (1983)

0:19:23 — "Together in Electric Dreams" by Giorgio Moroder with Philip Oakey (1984)

0:22:37 — "セソワ" by Rajie (1984)

0:26:49 — DJ

0:31:47 — "Un Hombre de Verdad" by Alaska y Dinarama (1985)

0:35:55 — "Blow Out" (Edit) by Saeko Suzuki (1987)

0:36:54 — "O.D. (Optimistic Depression)" by Melon (1982)

0:42:40 — "Do You Like Japan?" by Melon (1982)

0:47:39 — DJ

0:50:49 — "Oui-Oui (A Canadian in Paris)" (Disco Mix) by Pulsallama (1983)

0:56:39 — "Got To Be There" by Swallow Tongue (1983)

1:00:08 — "Mãoscolorida" by Os Mulheres Negras (1988)

1:03:48 — "Afghan Farmer Driving Cattle" by The Mothmen (1981)

1:06:11 — DJ

1:10:52 — "Close Watch" by Helen Terry (1986)

[irritable-bowel-showdown]

The Irritable Bowel Showdown competitors have been decided!!!

Thank you for your patience, everyone! The participants have been chosen, the bracket has been tentatively created, and preparations for Round One are underway!!!

Thank you for the feedback on my poll about the number of participants. Although the option for accepting further submissions had the most support, after narrowing down the eligible participants to 102, I decided it would be best to continue with the current number so the tournament could begin! As a result, some characters with a higher seeding will automatically move to the second round to accommodate the awkward number of competitors.

The full roster is as follows:

Alphys from Undertale Amu Hinamori from Shugo Chara anon who shit on couch from real life Asahi Azumane from Haikyuu!! Bambi from Dave & Bambi Barry Bluejeans from The Adventure Zone: Balance Belphegor from SMT/Persona series Benrey from Half-Life VR but the AI Is Self-Aware [AKA HLVR: AI] Bor'dor Dog'son from Critical Role (Campaign 3: Bells Hells) Bubbie from The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack c!Tommyinnit from Dream SMP Carlton Ulysses Wheezer from Jimmy Neutron Chidi Anagonye from The Good Place Clark Kent from Superman Craig Boone from Fallout: New Vegas Dabi from My Hero Academia Dareth from LEGO Ninjago Dave Strider from Homestuck David Rose from Schitt's Creek Dean Winchester from Supernatural Deandra The New Girl from The Most Popular Girls In School Declan Lynch from The Dreamer Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater Dimitri 1 from 101 Dalmatian Street DJ from Beast Wars II Doctor Sung from TWRP Dr Crygor from Warioware Elmo Monster from Sesame Street/Elmo's Potty Time Enid Mettle from OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Filbo Fiddlepie from Bugsnax Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher God of Indigestion from The Discworld series: Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett Griffin McElroy from real life Hailey from Hatchetfield Nightmare Time Harrowhark Nonagesimus from The Lockes Tomb Hatsune Miku from Vocaloid Henry the Green Engine from Thomas and Friends Hinata Shouyou from Haikyuu Hiroshi Yuuki from Full Dive: This Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life! Isaac Moriah from The Binding of Isaac James Tiberius Kirk from Star Trek: The Original Series Jane Doe AKA Soldier from Team Fortress 2 Jean Pierre Polnareff from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Johnny Sasaki from Metal Gear Josuke Higashikata from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Jotaro Kujo from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Juniper Sloan from Camp Here And There Kakashi Hatake from Naruto Kanata from Gokurakugai Kuruto Ryuki from AI: The Sominum Files - Nirvana Initiative Kuwabara Kazuma from Yu Yu Hakusho Lan Zhan (Lan Wangji) from The Untamed Larry Appleton from Perfect Strangers Loki the cat from real life Magellan from One Piece Mari from Yellowjackets Marinette Dupain-Cheng from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir Marvin Grossberg from Ace Attorney Megatron from Transformers Mr. Tang from Lego Monkie Kid Napstablook from Undertale Naruto Uzumaki from Naruto Nekomaru Nidai from Danganronpa Niki Shiina from Ensemble Stars Nyack of the Rana’for from Not Another D&D Podcast Ochako Uraraka from My Hero Academia Okuyasu Nijimura from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Onceler from The Lorax Owen from Total Drama Panty Anarchy from Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt PaRappa from PaRappa the Rapper Porky Pig from Looney Tunes Primis "Tank" Dempsey from Call of Duty Zombies Queen Chrysalis from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Raji Shenazard from Snow White with the Red Hair Reigen Arataka from Mob Psycho 100 Rock Lee from Naruto Roy Kent from Ted Lasso Rung from Transformers Saint from Rain World Sakaeguchi Yuuto from Ookiku Furikabutte Senri from Koisuru Bokura wa Ichou ga Yowai Shauna Shipman from Yellowjackets Shit in Pants Guy from Johnny The Homicidal Maniac Shoichi Irie from Katekyo Hitman Reborn Spamton from Deltarune Spock from Star Trek: The Original Series Steven Universe from Steven Universe Tagora Gorjek from Hiveswap Tenzil Kem (aka Matter Eater Lad) from DC The cat from Lyle Lyle the Crocodile (movie) The test subject who shat in the elevator from Portal 2 Tomura Shigaraki from My Hero Academia Toshinori Yagi/All Might from My Hero Academia Triss Merigold from The Witcher Books Vetinari from Discworld Walter Tattersall from Yellowjackets William Afton from Five Nights at Freddys Yamaguchi Tadashi from Haikyuu!! Yami Sukehiro from Black Clover you the voter from real life Yuuga Aoyama from My Hero Academia Zhao Yunlan from Guardian

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

This is an incredibly funny podcast episode. I realize most of my Peacock & Gamble posts are just for me because no one else is going to be interested in listening to these in 2024, and by an large, I'd say that's very much for the best. But if anyone is interested in just laughing really hard for about 45 minutes, this is pretty good. Maybe. It's probably slightly funnier if you have the context of knowing the Peacock & Gamble dynamic so slightly less funny if you don't, but not by that much, it's very funny no matter what. Interview they did with Romesh Ranganathan from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013.

This post was not originally behind a cut, but I'm going to add one before I reblog it so I don't take up people's entire feed with an interview from 2013.

It gets incredibly combative about ten minutes in (and before that, quite suddenly very sexual for a couple of minutes, which I guess is the other element required to complete any good interview), and the amazing thing is they manage to keep up that level of aggression for a solid half hour or so. They keep saying they're going to get back on track, and as a listener I kept expecting them to do so because it's one thing to have some banter for a bit, but you can't just turn an entire interview into a fight. But that's what they did. They had a brief discussion about sexual positions, and then they had a fight for 30 whole minutes. God it was funny.

I always find it funny listening to people try to have a conversation and fail. This is weirdly making me think of Andy Zaltzman, even though Andy Zaltzman has nothing whatsoever in common with any of the three men in that podcast episode (Ray Peacock, Ed Gamble, Romesh Ranganathan). I often write about how Andy Zaltzman has no chemistry whatsoever with nearly anyone in the world, and I think it's clear that I view that as endearing, but I don't know if I make it clear enough how incredibly funny I find that to listen to. Just people trying to talk to each other and it doesn't work. One time last year Frankie Boyle did The News Quiz and he and Andy had to interact and they were like magnets just glazing off each other. Like sandpaper trying to knock together smoothly. It was nothing whatsoever like this Peacock & Gamble episode, totally different in vibe and tone and certainly in content, but I found myself thinking of it because they had in common people trying to have a conversation and utterly failing.

I mean, obviously the other different is that it was planned in this case. Andy and Frankie were genuinely trying to have a normal radio show and they just didn't have the social skills to pull it off. Peacock & Gamble are quite capable of being personable, and just thought it would be funny to bring on Romesh for an interview but instead have a fight.

It's hard to tell how much of it was real. I mean, I know it wasn't literally real, they were clearly friends who were playing. But it's hard to tell whether they sat down beforehand and actually planned all the elements of this, like in previous fights with a man named Raji James, or whether they just started talking and realized they were falling into this pattern and decided to run with it. It sounds like it was largely the latter, at least at first, which I think makes it funnier. By the end Ray Peacock was intentionally throwing grenades into the conversation by fucking with Romesh every time he opened his mouth, but for the first half or so, they did quite a good job of sounding like people who were genuinely trying to work together but kept stepping on each other's toes and hitting nerves and kicking off. Which is funny if it happens once but they kept it going for so long.

I'm going to say I think this one from right near the beginning might have been semi-real - as in they hadn't planned to get into a fight about this, but they hit on a topic that made Ray slightly prickly and then Romesh got into his prickly character/mode in response and all three of them realized it would be funny to significantly exaggerate their reactions. And then they just took off from there.

Ray Peacock: You’re sort of soaring a little bit [in your comedy career], aren’t you, at the moment? Romesh Ranganathan: I don’t know about soaring. Ray Peacock: I think you are, I think you’re doing really well. Ed Gamble: Let’s watch Romesh get incredibly uncomfortable while we compliment him. Because that’s the sort of thing that will happen. Ray Peacock: But you are, though, aren’t you? You’ve took off a little bit. Romesh Ranganathan: I don’t know – Ray Peacock: You’re not a big star. Romesh Ranganathan: Okay. Ray Peacock: Don’t be stupid. Romesh Ranganathan: All right, I mean I didn’t want it to go that direction. Ray Peacock: Yeah, no, you’re not. You’re not. Romesh Ranganathan: I’m happy to be self-deprecating, but don’t put the boot in. Ray Peacock: There’s a good chance nothing more will happen. But at the moment, you’re doing all right. Romesh Ranganathan: Yeah. Ray Peacock: You’ve done Russell Howard’s Good News. Romesh Ranganathan: That was great. Thanks, man. Ray Peacock: Yeah, join the club. Romesh Ranganathan: Yeah, yeah. Oh, hello. Ed Gamble: Welcome, welcome. Ray Peacock: Thanks? I didn’t compliment you. I said, “You did Russell Howard’s Good News” – you went, “Oh yeah, thanks.” Romesh Ranganathan: No, I meant – I wasn’t saying, “Thanks for saying I did Russell Howard’s Good News.” I was saying, “Thanks, because you did the warm-up, you were lovely.” Now I regret saying it, because you’ve turned into a little bit of a prick. Ray Peacock: So you’ve got me down as your warm-up act? Romesh Ranganathan: No I didn’t say you – oh my God. This is unbelievable. I didn’t – Ray Peacock: It is unbelievable, I agree! It is unbelievable. Romesh Ranganathan: This isn’t what I signed up for. I thought this was going to be a pleasant thing. And everything I’m saying, you attack me! Ray Peacock: It is a pleasant thing! You’re the one that’s coming here Billy Big Bollocks, coming here going, “Ooh I’ve been on Russell Howard’s Good News and you’re my warm-up man!” Romesh Ranganathan: I wasn’t Billy Big Bollocks! I didn’t even mention it, mate, you’re the one that brought it up. Ed Gamble: Right, can I just say – this may not be what you signed up for, but this is the reason we asked you to come on the podcast.

I transcribe that big to give an idea of the tone, but the really amazing thing is just how long they kept it going. So long. They kept finding way to get mad at each other. More podcasts should turn into straight-up fights (not in a Joe Rogan ray, just in a Ray Peacock/Romesh Ranganathan way). I like this more intellectual and thoughtful Ray Peacock that we're getting in the Edinburgh episodes, but it's been a while since he's picked a good fight with someone (in the chronology of me listening to the collected works of Peacock & Gamble starting from 2007 - I'm vaguely aware that in the chronology of real life it's been 10+ years since any of this has happened), and he's so good at it.

I'm mostly giving Ray and Romesh credit here because they were mostly driving it throughout the episode - Ed Gamble, like in their live shows, seemed to have worked out that he's funnier playing the faux-reasonable party. Though for some reason this tiny exchange has come back to me about four times since I first heard the episode and made me suddenly laugh again:

Ed Gamble: So what's your show about, Romesh? Romesh Ranganathan: Oh, I don't like your tone. Ed Gamble: All right. What's your fucking show about?

The whole episode is incredibly funny. I made the mistake of starting it on a break at work and I had to skip to the next one and then finish this one at home because it was making me laugh too hard for work. At the beginning of the next episode Ray said he didn't even want to do any more interviews because none will be as funny as the Romesh one, and as lovely as Ardal O'Hanlon was in that next episode, I sort of agree on that. And if anyone is reading this and would like to judge how much I enjoy combative comedy, I would just like to remind you that you watch people do professional pretend wrestling.

[augustusaugustus]

9.44 Bedfellows

Raji James in the vital pre-Vik Singh roll of “youth with bag”

HOLLIS: Oh, Sarge, Chief Inspector Cato’s bringing a couple of prisoners in. MAITLAND: Oh yeah? Dead or alive?

MONROE: Sir, can you spare a minute? CATO: Yes, what is it? MONROE: I’m not sure, Sir. Either ethnic recruitment’s gone through the roof, or we’re about to host a race riot.

CONWAY: You can think what you like about the junk I have to wade through every day: the committees, the panels, the partnerships. Well, I agree with you. Most of it is junk—but it just might save a copper’s life or two. That’s my bottom line. Yours is being a bastard!

[cleowho]

“Designate the least important!”

Doomsday - series 02 - 2006

[letterboxd-loggd]

East Is East (1999) Damien O’Donnell

February 7th 2020

[gabrielokun]

[hurlumerlu]

Robin Hood s1 ep10, Peace ? Off ! tallies : arrows work in mysterious ways : 0 war is hell / why did we invade Irak again ? 10. Again, the whole episode. running through the woods ! 2 gratuitous shirtless scene : 1.5, complete with tattoos Much says “Master” : 2 Marian saves Robin / Robin saves Marian : 0 slow mo : 0 a weapon is held to someone’s throat : 7 (5 of these at the same time) the show being ridiculous : “WOW IT WAS SUCH A GREAT MUCH EPISODE” I say a little too loudly while desesperaltly trying to hide the awfull “exotic female assassins” sublot behind my back. “I CAN’T BELIEVE HE COOKED SHISH KEBABS AND ALSO INVENTED THERAPY.” Anyway, Prince Malik/Harold, anyone ?

[pro-royalty]

@ronkeraji x The Bratz Challenge

[geezliberia]

"Mustapha Raji, Reluctance To Consult Former Professional Footballers Is Sheer Arrogance" - James Debbah.

“Mustapha Raji, Reluctance To Consult Former Professional Footballers Is Sheer Arrogance” – James Debbah.

Former National Team Captain & Head Coach James Salinsa Debbah has written an open letter lashing the president of the Liberia Football Association, Mustapha Raji. In his letter, James Debbah wrote: “(Mustapha Raji) With all due respect, your relutance to consult former professional footballers, whom I believe are the primary authority on issues relating to football, is nothing but “sheer…

[confettihipster]

you liked Timmy? I thought he was awful

timmy is ICONIC, i hate to use the phrase but sam tutty fucking understood the assignment. an absolute king in understanding the batshit tone of this show in a way a lot of guest stars don't get a chance to!!!! raji james is doing a very good job but he's just in a normal plot not playing some kid who wears a fucking tie to stalk girls and who tearfully burns his converse after getting caught pushing one down the stairs. that scene where he was going to smother juliet with the pillow in the hospital!!!!! absolutely insane!!!!!

and to underline just how much sam tutty understood the assignment in his exit interview he said he wants to come back as a zombie, we have to stan. i will not be watching his creepy musical but i support him in all his future endeavours.

in conclusion

[irritable-bowel-showdown]

Irritable Bowel Showdown: ROUND 2

Matchups and start times below:

Part 1 - (August 16 at 4pm UTC)

Barry Bluejeans (The Adventure Zone) vs Johnny Sasaki (Metal Gear)

Steven Universe (Steven Universe) vs God of Indigestion (Discworld)

Sakaeguchi Yuuto (Ookiku Furikabutte/Big Windup!) vs Isaac Moriah (The Binding of Isaac)

Reigen Arataka (Mob Psycho 100) vs Magellan (One Piece)

Triss Merigold (The Witcher) vs Primis "Tank" Dempsey (Call of Duty: Zombies)

Panty Anarchy (Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt) vs Carl Wheezer (Jimmy Neutron)

Toshinori Yagi/All Might (My Hero Academia) vs Henry the Green Engine (Thomas and Friends)

Marvin Grossberg (Ace Attorney) vs Belphegor (SMT/Persona series)

Part 2 - (August 17 at 4pm UTC)

Bor'dor Dog'son (Critical Role) vs Chidi Anagonye (The Good Place)

DJ (Beast Wars II) vs Filbo Fiddlepie (Bugsnax)

Harrowhark Nonagesimus (The Locked Tomb) vs Dr. Crygor (WarioWare)

The Onceler (The Lorax) vs Owen (Total Drama)

Alphys (Undertale) vs Deandra the New Girl (The Most Popular Girls in School)

Declan Lynch (The Dreamer Trilogy) vs Rock Lee (Naruto)

Geralt of Rivia (The Witcher) vs anon who shit on couch (real life)

Nyack of the Rana'for (Not Another D&D Podcast) vs Shit in Pants Guy (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac)

Part 3 - (August 18 at 4pm UTC)

Loki the cat (real life) vs you, the voter (real life)

Tomura Shigaraki (My Hero Academia) vs Hailey (Hatchetfield Nightmare Time)

James Tiberius Kirk (Star Trek) vs Griffin McElroy (real life)

Porky Pig (Looney Tunes) vs Naruto Uzumaki (Naruto)

Havelock Vetinari (Discworld) vs Kakashi Hatake (Naruto)

Queen Chrysalis (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) vs Doctor Sung (TWRP)

The test subject who shat in the elevator (Portal 2) vs Jean Pierre Polnareff (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)

Napstablook (Undertale) vs Yuga Aoyama (My Hero Academia)

Part 4 - (August 19 at 4pm UTC)

Benrey (HLVR: AI) vs Nekomaru Nidai (Danganronpa)

Dabi (My Hero Academia) vs Rung (Transformers)

Spamton G. Spamton (Deltarune) vs Elmo Monster (Sesame Street)

PaRappa Rappa (PaRappa the Rapper) vs Okuyasu Nijimura (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)

Zhao Yunlan (Guardian) vs Hinata Shouyou (Haikyuu!!)

Dean Winchester (Supernatural) vs Raji Shenazard (Snow White with the Red Hair)

Tenzil Kem/Matter Eater Lad (DC) vs Shoichi Irie (Katekyo Hitman Reborn)

Yami Sukehiro (Black Clover) vs Megatron (Transformers)

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Finished it. Finished the radio show. Here's one more post about it.

Finished the 196 hours of Peacock and Gamble, and now I can be free of it. Sort of. I do have other Ray Peacock/Ian Boldsworth stuff lined up to get into, but I can do other things first. I’m still not going to listen to anyone talk about ghosts. Same reason I don’t want to listen to people talk about food, it’s just not an interesting entertainment subject to me. So those are a couple of avenues for following their later work that are immediately shut down. But there’s a whole Patreon full of other Ian Boldsworth stuff, and FUBAR Radio has archived his shows with Angela Barnes that I want to hear, and I think I’ll pick and choose the episodes of his solo radio show with guests who look interesting (so the ones with comedian guests, pretty much).

It ended pretty well. The second-last episode was really rough, but they brought it back and finished strong with the last one, which I think is how things like this often go. They start to run out of steam after they’ve been doing it a while, and then in the final episode, when they know they don’t have to conserve any energy or ideas for later, they’re really good. Though usually that pattern applies to things that have been running for more than six months. It was a long six months, it seems. Drained their individual and combined creative energies in ways that would usually take years.

To be fair to them, most of the worst stuff from the last couple of episodes was down to some of the listeners who called in getting fairly weird. But to be fair to the listeners, that was mainly Ray Peacock and Ed Gamble’s fault. And to be fair to Ed Gamble, it was mainly Ray Peacock’s fault. There were times in the sort of middle episodes when I thought he was playing with fire a bit in the way he messed with the listeners. Stuff that worked really well when he was doing it with Raji James, a professional actor who knew him well and who’d helped to plan this beforehand. Ray started trying it with unsuspecting listeners, a few of whom were pretty young (there was a weirdly high number of quite young fans who called in regularly), and it was often very, very funny.

But it did come back on him later, as some listeners seemed to not understand things like boundaries or how comedy shows worked, entirely understandably, given that they were young and Ray Peacock wasn’t drawing lines very well. Seems like the type of thing where he may have known better if he’d been in a clearer mental state,. I don’t know that for sure, obviously, but someone who’s done that much compering work probably knows how to keep control of an audience interaction, most of the time. So all that stuff in the middle episodes where he went unprofessionally off the rails due to a breakdown – it was very funny, but it turns out that some of those rails exist for a reason, and sometimes there are consequences to going off them.

It happens to be a specific thing that I find it really really difficult to listen to. People talk about cringe comedy that’s hard to watch due to the second-hand embarrassment, like Peep Show or The Office or Alan Partridge, and I’m normally fine with those. I find them funny, and I don’t feel the need to look away. Maybe Mark Corrigan’s eating a dog or something, but David Mitchell’s fine, this isn’t real and isn’t a big deal.

However, one thing that will trigger extreme second-hand embarrassment in me is a real-life incident of fans who try too hard to get attention from the people they’re fans of. Or just fans who misread situations, who try to get involved in things more than is appropriate. Audience members interacting with the performer during comedy shows - heckling, or even just crowd work where the crowd member answers a question with one more word than is necessary - makes my shoulders tense up.

John Robins has a story about how he was a huge fan of Adam and Joe’s radio show, back when he was new-ish to comedy (not completely new, but before he’d ever been on the radio or was well known within the comedy community, so Adam and Joe wouldn’t have known who he was), and one time, while drinking a lot, he wrote them a very long email with about five different stories in it that he hoped would get read on their show, and he also wrote emotional stuff about how much they meant to him and how listening to them had got him through difficult times. And they never read out any of his stories, but in the episode after he sent that email, they mentioned that the listener emails are getting too long, so please keep them shorter. And I do not understand how John Robins is able to tell that story as just another one in his long list of stand-up/radio “shame well” stories, which is what he calls his funny stories about embarrassing moments from his past. That shouldn’t be thrown in with the time he accidentally insulted his girlfriend’s mother or whatever. That should be in a category of its own. That is the worst one. I’m tensing up just thinking about it. And now I’m thinking about the time his friend let me know he’d found my Tumblr blog and I’m tensing up even more, even though the guy was very nice about it. That one caused so much first-hand embarrassment that I decided to stop following John Robins’ stuff altogether, and in fact, would very much like to stop writing about it now. The idea of getting attention from people I like - I find that so embarrassing that I can hardly even listen to other people get attention from people they like.

It doesn’t even just have to be a fan interaction, though, that’ll trigger that major second-hand embarrassment in me. It’s anyone who’s in a situation where they’re not in charge and they overstay their welcome. Daniel Kitson had a bit in some of his stand-up for a while about finding it difficult to listen to interviews on the news, in which they don’t schedule enough time for a guest to say everything they want to say, and the news presenter has to hurry them along to make sure the show keeps happening on time, and you can hear the presenter get increasingly anxious as the guest takes too long to answer, and you end up cringing on everyone’s behalf. I feel that way when I listen to the news a lot. Peep Show and Alan Partridge are easy for me to watch, I don't get the second-hand embarrassment there, but I get actively anxious when listening to interviewees who talk too much in a radio show on a tight timeline.

Peacock & Gamble’s radio show was hardly run on a tight timeline – quite the opposite – but it still had little moments like that throughout its run. That’ll happen to some extent on anything that takes calls from listeners, where at some point the presenter will start trying to hurry them off the phone, and the listener will start speaking faster to try to get everything across, and I’ll think, “Oh my God just please hang up.” But it got much worse in those last couple of episodes, largely due to Ray Peacock having spent several weeks in a row playing with younger listeners who understandably thought this now means they’re part of the show. And possibly also thought other things.

To their credit, Peacock & Gamble seemed to recognize that it had got out of hand, and tried to shut it down. But this led to a couple of episodes in a row with excruciatingly awkward listener phone calls, some of the worst second-hand embarrassment I’ve ever felt. I managed to listen to them, but barely, and several times I very nearly just said, “Fuck my relentless completism that means I have to listen to every moment of a show or doesn’t count, I’m skipping ahead.” It got bad.

Anyway, aside from that it was a strong ending. The last episode was excellent overall, incredibly funny, the two of them just messing around with the “Don’t give a fuck what happens because we’re done with this place” energy that they’d had for a while, but without all the bitterness that was usually behind it, because they’d finally decided that they actually were done, for real, so they didn’t need to be upset anymore. The part of me that likes dark comedy quite enjoyed listening to their increasing bitterness at the radio station and everything in it, but it was a good time to hear them end on a note of shedding all that and just playing stupid songs and having fun.

I think I need to take back what I said in a post about the earlier episodes, that I thought maybe Ed Gamble is playing his straight man role too hard not just for double act role reasons, but because he genuinely finds Ray Peacock’s schtick less funny at age 28 than he did at 21. I don’t think that’s true anymore. Once Ed relaxed a bit, Ray Peacock regained his ability to make Ed Gamble laugh until he sounded like he was going to die, and that was always delightful. I’m back to my theory that maybe in the early episodes, Ed was just trying to make the show run smoothly so he could use it to advance his career, possibly in “proper radio”. Or maybe, less cynically, he was just new to radio and didn’t know what was allowed. Or they hadn’t worked together in a while, particularly not in unscripted situations, and it took them a bit of time to remember how they fit together that way. Whatever the reason, I can now barely remember how Ed Gamble seemed to be “too professional” in those early episodes, he dropped that altogether and they got to close the Peacock & Gamble double act on lots of childish silliness where they were at their best. Singing along to songs together, yelling at anyone who came near them, not giving a fuck.

On the subject of Ed Gamble – to the person who sent me a message some time ago that asked if there were any references in his older work to Ed Gamble dating a teenager at the time – yes, one. In the 2014 radio show, there was one point when they were discussing some early time when Ed Gamble was first getting to know the person who became his girlfriend, and Ray was complaining about something else Ed was doing at the time, and threw into his complaints the phrase “And she was only about ten.” To be extremely clear, as is always worth doing in these situations, she was not, in fact, ten. Ray Peacock was employing comedic exaggeration, to comedically exaggerate his point, which was “She was too young.” And that was the only reference to it that I caught, in seven years of double act.

I’ve thought of that Ed Gamble dating a teenager situation thing this week, as Tumblr is full of people posting about the parasocial thing where fans get so attached to people in the public eye that they feel hurt if they find out something bad about them, like they’ve been personally let down. I’ll admit that’s happened to me before (of course it’s happened, I dedicated years of my childhood to Harry Potter), more often when I was younger and more naïve, less as I get older and expect less from people in general. I used to use an analogy about where I put the few scraps of the faith in humanity I have left. I had a few scraps tied to JK Rowling, so when she went hard right-wing, those scraps disappeared and my dwindling faith in humanity got even lower.

It’s happened to me before, but I really don’t think that’s what happened here. I don’t think I had any scraps of faith in humanity tied up in the idea that Ed Gamble never dated a 17-year-old when he was 24 (that’s what happened, in case anyone’s reading this without context, I want to be careful not to irresponsibly imply that it was any worse than that, but also, it probably doesn't matter because I’m assuming no one’s reading this post). I did have an emotional reaction when I first learned that, a couple of months ago, but I don’t think any of that emotion was about feeling personally let down by Ed Gamble. I just get emotional whenever that topic is brought up, because it makes me think of all the teenage girls I’ve known/worked with/coached/been in a position of power over and desperately wanted to protect, who’ve been sexualized by adults. It also makes me think of some stuff that happened to me as a teenager, and generally, I have a strong visceral reaction to the idea of teenagers being sexualized by adults. When I did some math on Ed Gamble's relationship, I don't think I got any more upset that I would have if I'd read about some guy I'd never heard of doing the same thing.

So I had that reaction, but once that initial emotion faded away, I was just annoyed. I didn't feel betrayed, I didn't feel let down, it was just fucking annoying that something else has been tainted now. I don’t think sleeping with a girl who’s of legal age, even if only just (I worded that sentence in a way that avoided saying “barely legal” because I think that's an absolutely disgusting term and I don't want to use it... but the fact that I had to put effort into avoiding using that term is not a sign that I'm talking about a good thing), means Ed Gamble is a terrible person and listening to his stuff is morally wrong. I don’t feel any moral obligation to stop subscribing to podcasts where he makes money or anything, it’s not a situation like that.

It just means that whenever I enjoy his work, I now have a voice in my head saying “Think about all the time you’ve spent in your life fighting against adult men who creep on teenage girls, if you enjoy the work of this adult man then you’re a hypocrite.” And that’s an irritating fucking voice to have in my head when I’m trying to enjoy a comedy podcast. I’ve been enjoying the work of Ed Gamble for ages. I think the Taskmaster podcast is very good, I’ve liked him a lot in many different roles on other people’s TV shows and radio shows and podcasts, he was one of my all-time favourite Taskmaster contestants, (his stand-up's not great but that’s fine), all that is the reason why I went looking for his earlier stuff in the first place. And it’s really, really annoying that I now can’t enjoy any of that stuff without the voice.

The voice was there the whole rest of the time that I watched/listened to Peacock & Gamble things, but I tried to stop mentioning it in posts so much, because I figured it’s my issue, I don’t need to keep going on about it. I’m doing one more mention of it as I wrap this up, and then I’ll hopefully be done. I kept listening to Peacock & Gamble because it was entertaining enough to still be very funny even if the voice did taint it a bit. It takes a lot, though, for something to be so funny that it's worth hearing that voice. The Taskmaster NZ podcasts have started airing, and I’m skipping those. If Andy Zaltzman weren’t on the next season, I’d probably just unsubscribe from it. Podcasts discussing a non-Zaltzman Taskmaster season would probably not be enough to be worth putting up with the voice. But I think I can’t miss a chance to hear them talk about Andy Zaltzman. So that’s how far my principles go, I guess.

So as much as Peacock & Gamble has been worth it, it’s sort of nice to now be done with that and move on to things that don’t put that voice in my head. I’m going to re-listen to Ed’s ComCom episode because I want to hear his retrospective on Peacock & Gamble now that I have a lot more context to understand it, and that’ll be it from him. There’s lots more I want to hear from Ian Boldsworth, I don’t feel the need to hear a lot more from Ed Gamble. Not until Andy Zaltzman starts appearing on Taskmaster, anyway.

There is one quote from the final episode of their radio show, that -

Ed Gamble: Sometimes logic goes out the window and you’re just left with the residual chemical feeling of anger. Ray Peacock: All I have is my anger, and I need somewhere to direct it.

That exchange won't have the same impact written down as it did if you can hear the context and delivery, but I did stop when I heard that one to think, I kind of want to get that embroidered on a throw pillow to look at in my living room every day. Or possibly printed out in calligraphy and mounted on my wall. Maybe turn it into a mantra for if I ever take up meditation?

I was going to say that Ray Peacock and Ed Gamble suddenly taking a moment out of their comedy show to dissect the nature of anger in minute detail will be one of those tiny moments that sticks in my head for a surprisingly long time. Which made me wonder what other very small moments from the ~60-hour radio run will surprisingly stick in my head. I have to admit, the first little exchange I thought of was from way back in episode 2:

Ray Peacock: Would you fuck Jar Jar Binks? Thom Tuck: No. Ray Peacock: No, I mean, as a punishment. Thom Tuck: ...For who? Ray Peacock: For him.

It was the tone of voice in the way Ray cleared up the misunderstanding. "Oh, no, sorry that you incorrectly thought I meant for pleasure, let me make it clear that I am somehow talking about something weirder than that." "Let me make it clear that I am somehow talking about something weirder than that" is a great summary of many of Ray Peacock's best punchlines. From thence the humour arose, I guess.

It's weird what little things get to you. It's been a couple of months now since I watched the documentary about The Ray Peacock Podcast, and I now briefly picture Raji James every time I open a cupboard, due to Ed Gamble dropping the amazing line: "If you knew Raji, you'd look for him in cupboards as well."

Anyway, that was a good time. I think I went through that pretty fast, even for me. I've just checked, and I downloaded The Ray Peacock Podcast on May 7, so that's when I started this. 196 hours of Peacock and Gamble in about nine weeks. I'm going to keep paying Ian Boldsworth money for a while, I'm definitely not done with his stuff. But for the moment, I have a whole bunch of new stand-up that I'm quite excited to listen to, now that I'm free.

[lonelier-version-of-you]

That was a solid episode. Not brilliant or anything, but I enjoyed watching it. Charlie Swinbourne and Dana Fainaru are both good writers, so I don’t think I could not enjoy an episode they co-wrote.

I loved seeing Rash finally get to be in the limelight. It’s what he deserves. They don’t use his character anywhere near enough, they really don’t.

Rash, as of late, seems to be a good go-to character for nice, character-driven stories. The subplot a few weeks ago with his dad and his mum’s friend was sweet, and I really liked his scenes with Adil tonight as well.

I especially loved the scene with Rash and Adil at the bar, where Rash explained the real reason he got injured and had to quit running, and how it wasn’t Adil’s fault. Neet Mohan played that very well, I thought, as did Raji James.

I do find it funny, though, how they hyped us up for Rash having a “big secret” and it turned out it was just “oh, he used to be an athlete” lmao. To be fair, I definitely prefer this over some sad dark past, which is what the “secret” would inevitably be if Rash was on Holby.

Also, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t laugh at Neet Mohan playing teenage Rash. That... didn’t work.

The guest storyline with the elderly couple was an emotional ride. I really liked the choice to have them played by a real-life couple - I thought it added a lot to the scenes.

What the hell was up with Faith being like “oh I understand uwu” though. Like, good lord, Faith, not every difficult situation with a couple is applicable to you and Lev! Your husband’s gay, Faith, that’s it, he’s not suffering from a neurological disease. If anything, seeing Bobby and Ken should’ve been a reminder to count your blessings.

I really hate Faith these days, can you tell? And I don’t like Iain either, he’s always bored me. So I don’t have much to say about that whole thing, except that she will obviously inevitably give in and get together with him, and poor Dylan will have to watch another woman he loves go off with Iain Dean. Oof. I feel like we’re just counting down the days until Dylan has an alcoholism relapse at this point.

And the show finally revisits the Nate storyline! Took them long enough to remember it was a thing. I’m glad they’re acknowledging it again. Poor Tina, though. I was really wishing I could just reach through the screen and hug her tonight. :( I really like Tina. She’s a great and interesting character, and Adele James, as she showed tonight, is a very good actress. I hope she stays around for a long time yet.