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Amol Rajan sits in, with Ben Elton and Ward Thomas

Ben Elton joins Amol for Friends Round Friday as he chats about his first live tour in 15 years, plus there's live music from Ward Thomas.

Wake up to a star-studded breakfast with Amol Rajan! Blackadder writer and comedian Ben Elton chats to Amol about his upcoming stand-up tour and recently published novel Identity Crisis. Plus there's live music from Ward Thomas with a track from their latest album Restless Minds and a stunning cover of David Gray's This Year's Love.

Along with Jason K on news, Richie Anderson on travel and Mike Williams on sport, Amol and the team have the best start to your morning. With celeb guests, quizzes, headlines, tunes chosen by listeners and more music that you can shake a glitterball at!

There's also weather with Sarah Keith-Lucas and a Pause For Thought from comedian and writer Paul Kerensa as Amol entertains the nation with fun for the family!

2 hours, 59 minutes

Music Played

  • The Rolling Stones

    Start Me Up

    • The Rolling Stones - Forty Licks.
    • Abkco.
    • 7.
  • Emeli Sand茅

    Shine

    • Real Life.
    • Virgin.
  • Deacon Blue

    Real Gone Kid

    • The All Time Greatest Rock Songs ....
    • Columbia.
  • Liam Payne & Rita Ora

    For You (Fifty Shades Freed)

    • Fifty Shades Freed O.S.T. (Various Artists).
    • Island.
  • Cliff Richard & The Shadows

    Summer Holiday

    • Cliff Richard - 40 Golden Greats.
    • EMI.
  • Spiller

    Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) (feat. Sophie Ellis鈥怋extor)

    • (CD Single).
    • Positiva.
  • 叠别测辞苍肠茅

    Spirit

    • The Lion King O.S.T. (Various Artists).
    • Walt Disney Records.
  • The O鈥橨ays

    I Love Music

    • The Greatest Hits Of 1976 (Various).
    • Premier.
  • Mabel

    Don't Call Me Up

    • High Expectations.
    • Polydor.
  • The Cardigans

    Lovefool

    • The All Time Greatest Movie Songs.
    • Columbia/Sony Tv.
  • Ingrid Michaelson

    Young And In Love

    • Stranger Songs.
    • Cabin 24 Records.
  • Billy Ocean

    Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run)

    • Billy Ocean - Love Is For Ever (L.I.F.
    • Jive.
  • Liam Gallagher

    One Of Us

    • Why Me? Why Not.
    • Warner Music.
  • Miley Cyrus

    Malibu

    • (CD Single).
    • RCA.
  • Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa

    One Kiss

    • (CD Single).
    • Columbia.
  • Bananarama

    Venus

    • Fantastic 80's - 3 (Various Artists).
    • Sony Tv/Columbia.
  • Muse

    Starlight

    • (CD Single).
    • Warner Bros.
  • Kygo & Whitney Houston

    Higher Love

    • (CD Single).
    • RCA Records.
  • Stealers Wheel

    Stuck In The Middle With You

    • (Single).
    • A&M.
  • Phyllis Nelson

    Move Closer

    • The Love Album (CD 1) (Various Artist.
    • Virgin.
  • Tears for Fears

    Everybody Wants To Rule The World

    • Rule The World: The Greatest Hits.
    • Virgin EMI Records.
    • 4.
  • Jeremy Loops

    Gold

    • Critical As Water.
    • Loops Music.
  • The Isley Brothers

    Summer Breeze

    • The Best Summer Ever (Various Artist.
    • Virgin.

Pause For Thought

Pause For Thought
From comedian & writer Paul Kerensa:
Delighted to be on the same show as Ben Elton 鈥 just seen him down the corridor... He inspired me to become a comedy writer. I met him in the 90s 鈥 between him adding Blackadder Goes Forth and The Thin Blue Line to his sitcom-writing CV. After he signed my VHS cassettes, I asked for writing advice. Mr Elton said, 鈥渏ust go and do it鈥 鈥 or might have been 鈥渏ust go鈥. Can鈥檛 remember. Regardless, thanks to that, two decades on I鈥檝e helped write a couple of sitcoms 鈥 Not Going Out, Miranda 鈥 though my own self-created show is yet to come good. But hope is at the heart of all sitcoms as characters try to come good.听
Even monsters like Blackadder or Basil Fawlty try to better themselves, to leave the trenches, or Torquay鈥檚 budget hotel sector. Sitcoms hold up a mirror to us: a Problem of the Week gets worse at first, and our hero blames the apparent idiots around him 鈥 Baldricks and Joey Tribbianis. But they might actually have the best ideas, the most cunning of plans. These are bizarrely moral tales. The problem is solved, the proud are humbled, comeuppance comes, and the world is as it should be... Till next week when when everything resets for another of life鈥檚 hurdles. As we go, we laugh, at ourselves. So has it always been 鈥 before even the time period of the first Blackadder.听
Two thousand years ago, Jesus told stories that levelled society, that elevated the underdog. His parables are mini-sitcoms... ...In 鈥楾he Good Samaritan Life鈥, pious priests ignore a poor beaten traveller, but in a plot twist, the unlikely title character comes to the rescue. ...In 鈥楳en Behaving Prodigally鈥, a wasteful son is welcomed back by his father in the big final party scene, to the other son鈥檚 annoyance. ...In 鈥極nly Fools and Lost Sheep鈥 (tenuous, that one), a shepherd leaves ninety-nine others for the one sheep that鈥檚 got away. I think Jesus used comedy too 鈥 though our tastes have changed over two millennia.
He talks of ignoring the speck in someone else鈥檚 eye till you鈥檝e got this plank out of your own. Comic exaggeration 鈥 even the language of his family trade, carpentry. The stories we tell, and watch, help us laugh at ourselves, when we鈥檙e in The Thick of It, as we Keep Up Appearances, Till Death Do Us Part, Goodnight Sweetheart.

Broadcast

  • Fri 16 Aug 2019 06:30