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Five Things For Friday

Five things for Friday #5: Comedy, frost fairies and public panic

Podcasts, videos and brilliant articles galore!

Cavan Scott

• 4 min read
Five things for Friday #5: Comedy, frost fairies and public panic
Image: Cloth Cat

Hello there!

It's been a week and a half, with two funerals and pesky ongoing complications from my recent surgery (although, mercifully, there is light at the end of that particular tunnel, thank heavens!)

But there have also been genuinely brilliant moments along the way, including a day in the make-up chair for my daughter's prosthetics course (I was a sea-zombie, because of course I was), plus a thoroughly civilised afternoon tea at Sally Lunn's in Bath with my Star Wars: The High Republic chum Claudia Gray and romance author Ronni Davies. (I had the Welsh Rarebit Special and it was lush!)

Balancing all of that with work has been... well, let's say character building, but here we are... Friday.

Thud!

I didn't want to skip our end-of-week round-up of things I've loved and hope you might too. The list's a little more video- and podcast-heavy than usual, but to be honest, I've not had time to read as much as normal, and podcasts have kept me sane!

Here we go:

  1. Animation: This may just be for folk in the UK, but I wanted to shout out my pal Jon Rennie of Cloth Cat Animation, whose Ysbryd yr Oerfel (The Ghost of Midwinter) is now available on BBC iPlayer in the original Welsh, with English subtitles.

    Broadcast on Christmas Day on S4C, it's a folklore-tastic little gem about a girl who comes face to face with a malevolent frost fairy in medieval Wales. Chilly one minute, and warm the next! Loved it!

  2. Creativity: "People forget that you can just make stuff!" The Industry's video interview with musician and film producer Moby is absolutely packed with little gems about creativity (and some truly bonkers stories about David Lynch too!) I found myself nodding like billy-o to many of the points, especially towards the end, where Moby talks about creatives having to adopt certain ninja-like qualities when receiving notes.

    And as a Brucie bonus, Moby fans should also check out this recent episode of the BBC's Soul Music podcast, which examines Porcelain – a track that instantly takes me back to many a Sunday-morning-after-the-night-before in the early noughties.

  3. Radio: I always thought that Orson Welles' War of the Worlds was the first radio drama to inspire panic on the streets, but apparently not, according to '100 Years of Fake News: The Accidental Radio Hoax That Terrorised London' from last week's New Review.

    Who would've thought that Mr Welles was inspired by a Catholic Chaplain broadcasting from Alexandra Palace in 1929?

  4. Journalling: A few people have commented on my post this Tuesday about my morning routine, specifically the section on journalling. Anyone who has struggled with the practice in the past might like to check out this five-minute YouTube video by Chad Everyday, where he lays out what people rarely tell you about keeping a journal!

  5. Podcast: I have absolutely binged this series since my friend, Mark Wright, recommended it to me. All British Comedy Explained sees British writer Tom Salinsky introduce her to eight groundbreaking British comedies from television and radio, including: Monty Python, The Young Ones, Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, The Goon Show, Not Only But Also, The Office, The Day Today and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. It's an absolute joy and also features interviews with folks behind the scenes of many of the shows. Highly recommended, and if audio isn't your thing, you can watch it on YouTube instead.

Let me know if any of those catch your eye — or reply in the comments with something I should be reading, watching, or listening to next. You can also just hit reply to the email.

I’ll be back on Tuesday with a reader question on making your name in TV.

Until then, look after yourself and each other!