July 26, 2021

I realize I haven't written in a couple days, and what I could tell you is how I drank too much on Saturday, and how I feel embarrassed about it. But I won't because it wasn't really that bad. I think I just feel like I have a tenuous grasp on some friendships. I'm worried looking like an ass once or twice might make think people better than to ask me to hang out anymore. Look, that was kind of sad. 

I'm writing this one in the evening for a change. I wanted to get on to talk about Series 9 of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme. I love John Finnemore's audio comedies. He's done Cabin Pressure, an audio sitcom starring Benedict Cumberbatch (before and including his Sherlock days). The Souvenir Programme is a sketch show, usually performed in front of a live audience. Because of COVID, Series 9 had no audience, and I listened through most of the six episodes before realizing that the sketches had a lot of characters in common. Each one started with John Finnemore stating the place and year, which was odd. Some of the sketches seemed time specific but not all of them. What I mostly failed to notice during the first listen, but managed to catch (thankfully, otherwise yikes Amy) on the second listen, was that the sketches were all about one family, stretching back several generations. Each episode had one central character in common, and traced their life backwards through time. 

The first one was Russ Golding, a gay musician who was bullied as a child. Deborah Golding née Wilkinson, his mother. Jerry Wilkinson, Deborah's father who suffers from a stroke later on in life. Vanessa Wilkinson née Noone, Jerry's mother who went away during the war, and who worries her mother is not her real mother (she is though). And Oswald 'Uncle Newt' Nightingale, who's Vanessa's biological father, although she doesn't know it. Uncle Newt's sister and Susanna Noone were Vanessa's mothers. Uncle Newt wrote code poetry in the war and was helped by Jerry, who was in his care. 

Let me tell you -- the thing works. And I admire it in part because it's such a risk. I had to listen to it twice to really get ahold of it. The real depth and artistry of the thing isn't apparent right away, and the sketches are often as sweet as they are funny. The thing is sad and thoughtful and, although frequently silly, depicts what feels to be a genuine family. Bravo!