The Corona Diaries

Left foot down, a healthy screech of brakes and before you know it we have done a complete one eighty in terms of the episode plan. Every once in a while we do a double-diary format, as cool as double-denim and a nice break from the norm. Often it’s because of a really lengthy entry. Typically I read a couple of pages a week, but on the odd occasion the text is four or five pages long and then we...

There’s more than an end of term whiff to the this weeks instalment, and if you give me a moment I will explain. Firstly we begin by tidying up all the outstanding bits from #162, namely the curious incident around the diary reading, the unasked questions that were answered, and then the unasked questions that weren’t. And secondly, after a number of false starts, we actually manage to get a bit o...

It’s been a fairly chunky edit this week because, as you will undoubtedly hear, we had a few challenges. If you weren’t aware we actually record TCD (sorry Lucy) over Zoom, just to allow me to see Ant & Ant to see me. The audio quality on Zoom is a little sketchy, so instead of using that we simultaneously record our conversation at either side of the screen. That means we have some technical...

Some crucial things ticked off the TCD checklist in this weeks episode; a) lengthy preamble that inadvertently details some aspect of my personal circumstances or health - tick b) not-so-subtle use of an audio sound effect, often crudely inserted - tick c) excessive 70s references and/or nod towards a national treasure - tick, tick d) never seemingly planned but nevertheless strangely insightful M...

It's pretty much a single question episode this week. "Did you have a nice birthday?!" Now as a concept you can spin that a couple of ways. Either, Ant followed his normal pattern of TCD prep and literally thought that would be enough to generate sixty minutes worth of something (and to be fair we do have previous...) Or, Ant made a calculation based on information previously gathered and assumed...

It’s a strangely hypnotic episode of TCD (sorry Lucy) this week and a complete antithesis to what was going down on #157. This is partly due to the slight otherworldliness that occurs when Ant & I attempt to Zoom over long distance, particularly when it involves Hotel wi-fi as it makes serious conversation a little trickier. Which means we tend to follow the path of least resistance and let th...

An extra voice on the pod this week and one, that as you will find out, is normally banished to a darkened room to labour away on his near-never-ending task. A bit like TCD (sorry Lucy) it must have seemed like such a good idea at the time, I mean what could be better than getting to listening to, and then catalogue, all the bits of music that your favourite band has ever committed to tape...other...

Yet again we have been dropping distinctly British, distinctly men-of-a-certain-age, cultural references into TCD. We do try and be more 'global', but the fact remains that you can take the boys out of Yorkshire (though I am not sure why you would want to...) but you can't take Yorkshire out of the boys. Which means you are going to get references to Only Fools & Horses , Allo-Allo and The Two...

It actually started out quite well this week, not only were we both in the same time zone (and the same country), but the early rambling recollections of Cleckheaton and custard were both lucid and choc-full of supplementary detail. But in a true TCD stylee Jim Broadbent brought it all crashing down. He was the northern actor I was grasping for, the chap that in my head was on screen with the like...

The chat this week is that heady mix of sleep deprived and gin-fuelled. And not only was I part of the original conversation, but I have also listened back to it and I am afraid I still can’t offer any explanation for what you are about to listen to. Even the 'seven degrees of separation' theory is of no use in understanding how we get from Pigs down the Pit, to Tim Curry via the sunscreen habits...

Strange episode this week. Actually to be 100% accurate more of a strange recording process. In the wider context of TCD as a body of work it’s probably bang average, but the journey to get there was more than a little disrupted as you will hear. And to add to the slightly surreal, there is also the prospect of Showaddywaddy's rhubarb and the Hollies Christmas cards to contend with, not to mention...

To help you navigate this weeks episode some of you may well need a little help. You see when you get a couple of blokes from loosely the same time, and roughly the same neighbourhood, and they get into a groove then they are going to drop in a few cultural references that are, for want of a better phrase, a little oblique. So you might want to have the following nuggets of information to hand; Ba...

151 is an episode in several parts. It's partly post-PZ housekeeping, as we discuss what the hours and days look like for me after an event like that. But then it's partly a moment to enjoy the warm glow, and pick out a few highlights from what was an incredible weekend. And then there is the expected update to 150 as Ant completes the fashion circle and we discuss that 'coat' and those 'trousers'...

Well we have only gone and bloody made it to one hundred and fifty. No one can be quite as surprised as us about this particular milestone because when we started this journey there wasn't a destination programmed in, and certainly not one so far on the horizon. The fact is that The Corona Diaries wasn't really much more than a concept, an idea that hadn't really developed into a firm plan. We had...

The episode title is absolutely nothing to do with either Ant or myself, but it was a phrase that our guest used and do you know what, it perfectly fits the bill. Wait a minute, a guest...whats that all about when we are so close to episode 150? Well, this particular week of the year in reality is the only week to cajole this particular person to pop her podcast cherry, because at this time of the...

You may recall that we had the legendary Lucy Jordache on the podcast a while back, and she pointed out that TCD (case in point) has a tendency to be a little bit niche and at times a little bit clique-y. Now we have tried to take her advice onboard, but I suspect Chapter 148 is definitely one for the hardened purple. "How so?" I hear you ask. Well let me give you a few examples.. There is quite a...

Let’s start with a shout-out to all those Purples who have offered up Limericks & Rhymes following the ‘capillary’ episode last week. The standard, overall, was most impressive, definitely a notch up from anything that could be described as 'enthusiastic' or (even worse) 'proficient'. However the recognition by name must go to Kester Roper, who provided a belter of a limerick that I, being a b...

Well that was a rum do. We had quite the epic trying to record Chapter 146. If it wasn't the microphone with the mind of it's own, it was the Zoom connection, and if it wasn't the Zoom connection it was the sound of mi goretex (and yes I know I've taken liberties with the spelling of rustle in the title...) And the fact I was struggling a little with the ol' synapses was just the cadburys flake on...

The scene takes place in the kitchen of a traditional country cottage. A door at the front of the room opens into an entrance porch, and the back door opens to a garden with more than adequate quantities of lavender. There is a table and chairs, a Cappuccino maker and the the front window overlooks a village green. There is evidence of cricket, but no match is currently taking place. (sound of a f...

There are a couple of moments in this weeks chapter when I tried my hand at improv. Whilst answering a question about Pour My Love I decided (in the moment no less) to illustrate my point by playing a bit of the keyboard part. Not a bad idea you would have thought, especially as I had the piano on front of me - and do you know what, I absolutely nailed it. Boom. No more than five minutes later, an...

A chance exchange in this weeks TCD (sorry Lucy) resulted not only in an episode title, but also a little digital stroll where I chanced upon a whole new internet experience. The website in question is called RhymeZone and it is quite simply inspired. You merely tap in your chosen word, in this case Cowell, and before you can say "high waistline" you get the following response; Words that rhyme wi...

There's a point in this weeks episode where we find ourselves trying (and subsequently failing) to recollect the name of a particular procedure of chemical analysis. It will be blatantly obvious when you reach that point in proceedings, and as it would also be hard to class it as a spoiler, I will tell you it's that one with a splodge on a bit of blotting paper. Now the point I am trying to make i...

For the purposes of reference this week (you may need to read back after you have listened). Staithes - Staithes is a seaside village in the borough of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England. The name Staithes derives from Old English and means 'landing-place'. Staithes has numerous narrow streets and passageways; one of these, Dog Loup, with a width of just 18 inches (45.7 cm), is claimed to be...

I am not lying when I tell you that I learnt three things this week, whilst recording Chapter 140. And it wasn't just me, Ant picked up a couple of new nuggets of information as well. On the surface this would seem a good thing, however the danger of all this enlightenment is that when you have a limited amount of spare capacity (cranially speaking) you run the risk of discarding something importa...

If memory serves, we haven't ever recorded an episode of The Corona Diaries between Christmas & New Year. Obviously I haven't gone to the trouble of actually checking that fact, I am relying purely on gut instinct and the lingering after-taste of industrial-strength descaler. Of course the beauty of this period of the year is that it's a bit like the twilight-zone, with nobody really quite sur...