Radio and podcasts

Today’s Joanna Page (or did y’all prefer "Page of the Day"? Or even just "Joanna page"?) is from Gavin & Stacey (obviously). Hope you enjoy it.

Just as a brief – okay, not very brief at all – aside though, I’ve been listening to Safety Catch, which was a Radio 4 comedy show on in September/October last year. The lovely Ms Page isn’t in it much, even though she gets almost top billing, but she’s brilliant when she is, particularly when she gets a load of good lines in the fourth episode. Plus, ooh! She’s allowed to keep her Swansea accent! Yey!

In case you don’t know what it’s about, here’s the plot from the BBC Radio 4 web site:

Safety Catch is the story of a man who never intended to go into the arms trade: he fell into it but he’s definitely going to leave soon. And if he wasn’t doing his job, someone else would. And at least he doesn’t work for McDonald’s

Simon McGrath likes to think of himself as a good person. He donates blood (although not bone marrow because he’s heard that hurts), he recycles and he’s adopted two tigers. But he has to pay his mortgage just like everyone else and that’s why he currently works as an arms dealer.

It’s actually really funny (Laurence Howarth wrote it), so worth listening to in its own right. How can you do that, given that Radio 4 isn’t playing it any more, and it’s not on Listen Again? I couldn’t possibly comment, but you could try clicking the Play buttons below…

PS I had the strangest impression they’d done a TV pilot of it with Stephen Mangan recently, but I can’t find the slightest trace of that anywhere, so I must have imagined it.

PPS No hint of a second series. Sigh. Still, if you stick it on at 11.30pm on a Wednesday, what do you expect?