Showing results by author "Mark Radcliffe" in All Categories

Standing at the crossroads - the Mississippi crossroads of Robert Johnson and the devil's infamous meeting - Mark Radcliffe found himself facing his own personal crunch point. Aged 60, he had just mourned the death of his father, only to be handed a diagnosis of mouth and throat cancer. This momentous time in his life, and being at the most famous junction in music history, led Radcliffe to think about the pivotal tracks in music and how the musicians who wrote and performed them.

Gabriel Bell is a grumpy 44 - year old web journalist irritated by the accumulating disappointments in life. He and his girlfriend Ellie want to start a family, but Gabriel has so few sperm he can name them and knit them flippers. So it's IVF, which is expensive. Losing his job was bad enough, but getting run over and waking up to find himself in a therapy group run by angels really annoys him. In Gabriel's group are a professional killer and his last victim, as well as the woman whose car put Gabriel and herself in a coma.

Call me Mark. My first time in the Roman district of Trastevere was in 1997 whilst covering the England World Cup qualifier for Radio 1. Nearly thirty years later, I'm headed back there, with my wife Bella and dog Arlo in tow. Call me Arlo. I normally hate the sight of suitcases in case it means Him and Her are leaving me, but this time I'm coming with them. I've got my favourite food packed and my doggy passport ready to go.

When Radio One chief Matthew Bannister popped into 'A Lite Bite' in Altrincham for his favourite gherkin roll, little did he expect to find the two northern chancers who would bring so much sophistication to his beloved station. For there in the corner, playing a DLT Give Us A Break trivia game, stood Mark Radcliffe and his mate, known not particularly affectionately as Lard. Soon millions would be tuning in to hear the witty banter and roughhouse sketches of the men once described as 'that fat git and the other one'.

There is a fine line between madness and magic. It is 1989 and Community Care is about to reboot the industry of psychiatry. In a soon-to-be-closed asylum a bruised nurse, Adam Sands, is feeling less like a purveyor of kindness and more like a concentration camp guard with every passing drink. Years later Adam has got used to the quiet life when his past finds him. Maybe this time he can do some good. Even make a difference. But redemption, like magic, can come from the strangest of places.