Joe Queenan: My Years of Awe and Wonder

John Sergeant introduces two decades of adventures in broadcasting with the best reviewed American on BBC radio - Joe Queenan.

From his early days presenting Postcard from Gotham through to Wonderful Ways to Make a Living, A Brief History of Irony and Hitler's Favourite Cowboy, Joe Queenan has always shown a delight in his interviewees.

"Most journalists don't like people but I'm the complete opposite of that. For the brief moment that we meet, they become almost like friends. I remember all of them still."

You'll hear uncut and previously unbroadcast extended interviews, unsliced and undiced, with:

Ian Hislop
Germaine Greer
Kathy Lette
Armando Iannucci

John Sergeant reveals what it's like to be rung up and asked to give short, snappy thoughts on abstract subjects such as cunning, failure and blame.

And then there's Queenan's unexpected and deep love of Britain (he is married to a woman from Stroud), plus his ongoing amazement that a poor boy from Philadelphia has been given the opportunity to work for the BBC: letters, he says, "that do resonate in America still".

"It's worth remembering that when you're doing these kinds of programmes, they become a part of your life. For four days that's all you're doing. But it's not a job. It's some sort of special adventure. You're meeting unusual people. You're in unusual places. You're doing an unusual thing, asking complete strangers bizarre questions that they hadn't expected you to ask. "

Produced at BBC Bristol by Miles Warde.

Made for BBC Radio Extra 4 and first broadcast in September 2016.