4 September 2003
‘Sleep is for the weak,’ they say. ‘Not for this week it isn’t,’ I reply.
Be my reckoning I have had seven hours sleep in the last two days. Monday night I was playing Grim Fandango and got five hours. Yesterday was worse. For some reason unfathomable to me, I listened to the whole of Five Live’s Up All Night programme.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s excellent, whether it’s presented by Anita Anand (the wittiest late-night radoi show presenter ever?), Dotun Adebayo (great or mediocre depending on how interested he is in what he’s talking about), Russell Fuller (an honest pro), and Rhod Sharp (the man whose idea it all was; the best there is).
It’s just that…well. I don’t think it’s right to spend four hours lying in bed listening to a radio show, especially when you have to be awake the next morning.
So, if you’re planning on aping me, here’s what’s hot and what’s not. Shun Dave Aldridge, the buffoon of a film critic. Embrace Tim Vickery and his world football phone-in: it’s brilliant. Brace yourself if you plan on listening to Cash Peters; he wrote a book, Gullible’s Travels: Adventures of a Bad Taste Tourist. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Marvel at Dr Karl and his ability to quickly answer all sorts of science questions in an amusing way. It’s probably more impressive because of the time shift: while to us he’s doing this in the middle of the night, for him it’s normal working hours.