The Corona Diaries

In the spirit of continuous personal development, and in recognition that every day is indeed a school day, I am in a position to reliably inform you that as far as TCD (sorry Lucy) is concerned 09:30 just doesn't work. Confused, let me explain. For reasons too numerous and mundane to mention, the recording slot for #171 had to be moved up to earlier in the morning. Not by much, just 30 minutes bu...

Wow, that was a bit of an adventure. If life is indeed a journey, and not a destination, then the route to this weeks episode has been like off-roading in an Austin Allegro with a duff clutch pedal. It is fair to say we have faced a few challenges this week, but in amongst it all we have also learnt three valuable lessons. As far as TCD (sorry Lucy) is concerned if the wi-fi connection ain't rock...

We are caught between a meatball and a clotted cream scone this week, with Ant squirrelled away in a corner of Devon and me in Sweden for a couple of weeks. It seems like an age since we last recorded one of these, so we eased ourselves back into the podcasting swing by catching up with my recent off-mic activities and reflecting on my recent natural show in Liverpool. And as a special treat the l...

Break out the Berol felt tips for #168 and be careful not to go over the lines. If you cast your mind back to last weeks episode you may recall we got so deeply engrossed in chat about Living in Fear and the upcoming 'au natural by the seaside' shows that we didn't really talk about the diary. In hindsight this seemed a shame because it was a jolly interesting excerpt about a jaunt to Mexico. So t...

In our distinctive haphazard style we finally got back onto a bit of FEAR chat for #167.  After quite a deep dive into The New Kings & El Dorado a few episodes back, today was dedicated to Living in Fear. As you will hear I am still not quite sure if the lyric is fanciful, protest full or just a bit naive, but what I will say is there is a lot to unpack. And, if you are purple, and you li...

Now, there are two reasons why Seamus is all over #166. The first one you will find out pretty much as soon as you start listening, and tbh it’s a thing of beauty. No need to know the backstory, it is what it is and as you will hear, it moved me to oblige. Secondly he was one of the first (possibly the first) to vote for The Corona Diaries in the British Podcast Awards. And in this he is not alone...

Let's break with tradition and explain ourselves. The dust has settled a little since we recorded #165 and as such I can provide you with a little bit of supplementary information. It turns out the Tempodrom was originally a venue housed in a large circus tent, and so when the current permanent venue was constructed in 2001 it was designed to echo that fact. On the Wikipedia page for the venue it...

Seventeen points of seperation takes us from the beginning to the end this week. Ivy Nail-Brush Left-Handed Right Handed November HMRC Christmas Market Jon McClane Places that aren't Tring Liver'n'Onions Squeeze Steve Gadd Aerosmith Sprinting spiders Nial's 21st Nasal-hair treatment Tony Benn Boom. h Janie's got a Gun - Aerosmith Hearts & Bones - Paul Simon TCD Merch Store Become Purple and su...

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...