Ian McMillan presents the weekly magazine about language. Guests include award-winning eartoonist Peter Blegvad.
Playlist
Ian McMillan presents the literary cabaret programme in a brand-new Friday slot. Ian will be joined by a host of wordsmiths helping him deliver a range of hilarious, surprising and arresting takes on our experiences of Friday night. Comic monologist Sophie Woolley gives a dizzying set of performances as Monica and Claudine, two young ladies dangerously under the influence of alcohol on a Friday evening binge. The Verb's resident eartoonist, Peter Blegvad, tackles the etymology of Friday and its various incarnations through popular song, whilst writer Linda Grant ponders on the significance of Friday night in the Jewish home in a specially commissioned piece. Also joining them will be the up-and-coming singer Kate Nash, who riffs on the theme in a newly written song, plus, an affectionate and moving portrayal of Friday night in nineteen fifties Leicester from the novelist Sue Townsend.
PRODUCTION DETAILS Sophie Woolley tours with When To Run: 1st March, Black Box, Belfast; 20th March, Birmingham Repertory; 11th May, Arlington Arts Centre, Newbury; 24th June, Farnham Maltings, Surrey. More details at: www.sophiewoolley.com Sue Townsend's latest book Queen Camilla is published by Michael Joseph. Kate Nash's debut album is out later this year. Further details of her forthcoming UK tour are at: http://www.myspace.com/katenashmusic Linda Grant's latest book The People on the Street: A Writer's View of Israel is published by Virago. Peter Blegvad's The Book of Leviathan is published by Sort Of Books.
Here some Haikus sent in by our listeners:
If I could bottle
How it feels to finish work
Fridays, I'd be rich. by Ruth Chepstow
End of workday blues
Monotony now ended.
Let's begin to live! by Anne B Murray
Finally light drags
into Friday night's long start.
I see stars alone by Russell Ward
Sherbet syllabub
Revives the senses:
The Verb on Friday by Ken Hay
Friday night - I sit at home
and wonder alone
what the others are doing by Anna Lynch
A verb in the way
However, without an affray
I cannot say nay by Robin Marlow
A piss awful week!
A stonking gin and tonic!
You want a haiku by D and J Whiteley
Oh that Friday night feeling
My pay packet in my back pocket
Braced for shish kebabs exotic by Wendy Holden
I am proud to say
Man Friday was my forebear
Selkirk chose the day by Vesuvia
Roll over Crusoe
Sex'n'drugs'n'rock'roll
Friday is your man by Eckhardt Schmidt
I recollect beer
Housework is the new disco
Am I getting old? by Janet
Friday night revolves
the weekend round my finger
caught in its cacoon by Maggie Smith
Work week's energy
From low to frenetic as
Friday night lights up by Ronny Seery
Friday ev-en-ing:
Time to put your feet up and
Listen to "The Verb" by David Littlewood
