Is Melvyn Bragg the Most Boring Person on the Radio?

It is a rainy morning here in Wales (no scoffing about the Welsh weather it has been remarkably dry up until now and our newly planted trees are enjoying a watering) so no need for us to rush to get up. When we did it was time for a leisurely breakfast of home made bread and home made marmalade.

Being a creature of habit I flicked on the radio which is pretty much pre tuned to BBC Radio 4 (which probably is the standard behaviour for middle class ‘old farts’ like us). Actually I don’t know how to retune it as nothing yet has grabbed my attention so much that I must listen to it. So generally I listen to a bit of the Today program to keep me vaguely attuned to what is going on in the world outside our valley. But of course, being a ‘prickly old git’ I tend to end up turning it off, or at least hurling verbal abuse at it, when yet another slime ball politician is given air time to feed the population more bullshit. Wouldn’t it be great if just one of the tossers  was honest for once and said something like; ‘We’ve been enjoying lavish lifestyles on the backs of the poor in the ‘third world’ for years and borrowing way beyond our means to fund it. Growing of GDP (as presently worshipped to get us out of the shit) in the future is impossible in a world of finite resources. With the oilfields depleting and Peak Oil somewhere close by, cheap oil is a thing of the past. We have a large population living on a small little island, we owe huge amounts of money, have unsustainable lifestyles and basically we’re fecked. So you better get used to having less. Meanwhile us (politicians, bankers, royalty etc.) are keeping our indexed linked pensions, massive bonuses and palaces etc) because we’re worth it and you mugs can keep paying for them’?

‘Thought for the Day’ is also guaranteed to have me reaching for the off button as there is no way I can stomach having to listen to some ‘believer in some super tooth fairy’ spouting on about their thoughts and ludicrous beliefs. Even if I was being really generous and agree that these ‘nut jobs’ should be able to spout this bollox at least give us Atheists an equal platform.

Anyway, I digress, as it was still raining I made more fresh coffee and spread more marmalade on yet another piece of toast (yes readers this is the life of the retired) just as the clock ticked past 9.00 a.m. and Melvyn Bragg came on the radio muttering something about Plato. For fecks sake does that man sound boring or what? He may be intelligent (I’m not clever enough to know) but he could be prescribed on the NHS for insomniacs (take 5 minutes of Melvyn ‘nocte’ and you’ll be out like a light). Holy cow; I’d rather listen to ‘The Archers’ and that should have been put out of its misery years ago.

At this stage just before reaching for the off switch yet again I had a short fantasy about being in an episode of Farther Ted.

Father Ted
Ted, where the feck is Melvyn when you need him?
Father Ted: Who’s got the most boring voice?
Billy: What?
Father Ted: Of the lot of us, who’s got the most boring voice?
Father Fitzgerald: (extremely dull voice) That’d be me, Ted…

      Me: (extremely pissed off voice) That’d be Melvyn Bragg,  Ted

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7 thoughts on “Is Melvyn Bragg the Most Boring Person on the Radio?”

  1. I agree wholeheartedly. Melvyn Bragg is the most boring and pompous person on the radio. His remit appears to be to invite experts in their field on to his programme and then attempt to display that he knows more about their specialism than they do. Makes me want to throw the radio out of the window.

  2. I agree too, Ken. Whenever ‘In Our Time’ (an odd name for a programme that usually chooses ancient topics) focusses on an area where I have some background, I hear Bragg repeatedly pedalling simplistic platitudes and rudely interrupting experts who are trying to explain complex scenarios. He is one of those awful people who has an opinion on everything and isn’t afraid to bore us with it. I now always switch of before the programme starts.
    If I’d known about Bragg I wouldn’t have been so hard on Alan Sugar.
    ……..don’t get me started on the f***ing Archers. This programme MUST BE SWITCHED OFF before the music starts.

    1. this is a long time since your comments but I just had to say something. Melvyn Bragg is dreadful on radio 4 In our Time.Iagree with all you said and more . he thinks he is wonderful and will be withus for ever.

  3. Melvyn blasted Bragg !!!!! A complete and perfect dilettante… A totally over-rated fat head and bore and the perennial nasal curse of the radio waves. ( How did this fool EVER get appointed to the House of Lords, and does he ever go there??) He is a patronising and facile ‘broadcaster’ whose constant interuptive opinions far exceed his intellectual ability, and must be the prime frustrator to address the clever experts who are cursed to be interviewed by him as they try to broadcast their knowledge to a far smarter listening public. He needs to go !!! Banishing him to the red leather of the House of Lords and £300 a day where his presence will accelerate a rapid reform of this Chamber of democracy. Even then, would Wigton in Cumbria ever want him back???

  4. What is it with his voice? Hard to describe – kind of strangulated and nasal. Dreadful pompous programme on really obscure subjects – why is it called In Our Time? At least with this we don’t have to watch him – on TV he’s even worse because occasionally he flashes a toothy smile which is quite scary. Does he have bad implants or what?

  5. How wonderful to find people who share my opinions so exactly. My day is ruined if I catch even the first note of the Archers theme – especially the Sunday version on the squeeze box.
    As for Bragg, it’s infuriating when he repeatedly interrupts genuine experts with his facile observations. My favourite occurred during a programme on some aspect of modern physics:
    Expert: ‘Of course, nothing can exceed the speed of light.’
    Bragg: ‘Not even the speed of thought?’
    FIVE SECONDS OF STUNNED SILENCE.
    Expert: ‘Currently there is no evidence that telepathy exists.’
    It’s such a shame to have one’s access to renowned experts ruined by the turgid ego of this lightweight buffoon.

  6. He is on now on radio4 what the ? Are they waffling on about what a load of boring crap , mary shelly and frank Stein or is it Frankenstein.i cant say anymore as it would be lots of bad words

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