There’s only one episode of Party to go, but listen in to part three before Wednesday.
I’ll always listen or watch any programme based on the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and this week that meant listening to Archive on 4: Sculptress of Sound – The Lost World of Delia Derbyshire. In some respects it’s always Derbyshire who’s the focus of these kinds of documentaries. But I really don’t care and just love to bask in the sounds.
I’m something of a sucker for maps of every kind, so I’ve listened to the first three episodes of a ten part series that ran everyday last week and continues this week: On the Map.
The first episode is no longer on iPlayer, and there are only a few hours to listen to the second, but curiously the first episode featured Bill Drummond, once of The KLF (no – I still don’t believe he really set fire to a million pounds). He’s always been fascinated by maps and currently he’s walking the London Cake Circle – a circle he’s drawn on a map. He bakes a cake and then finds a home somewhere on the circle where he can deliver it!
What was really interesting about this episode was the detail of people who’ve worked for the Ordnance Survey and left their marks on maps. A good example is below.

If you look just above the word Blackgang and below Blackgang Chime, you’ll see the word “Bill” inscribed into the cliff detail. That’s the name of the man who first created that part of the map for Ordnance Survey.
Seemingly there are other examples which can be found if you spend time looking for them! (Of course Slartibartfast did the same thing in Norway). Other episodes I’ve heard so far consider the A-Z, maps used for driving like various AA maps, as well as the curse of the satnav.
As for TV – Sunday’s are just too good at the moment. Currently BBC2 has the killer combination of Tropic of Cancer followed by Wonders of the Solar System on Sunday nights. And yesterday also saw the latest in Paul Merton’s ongoing series about early cinema (with a repeat of his early Hitchcock programme also on over the weekend).
And OK. I’m still persevering with FlashForward, if only because it’s fun working out which British actors will attempt an American accent and which will stick with a British one. And Ricky Jay had a short but noticeable cameo. But I’m not sure for how long. Fewer flashbacks please