Christmas Special 2024
Our Christmas Special has become a regular feature on Forest Radio. It gives us an opportunity to look back on the year and have a think about the direction in which we are going and what we would like to do next. Do please send feedback and suggestions by emailing info@forestradio.co.uk>.
The programme begins with a few team members and guests in the siting room at Elmsdale Road for a chat about 2024. Jean begins by reading what she calls a "silly Christmas story" that she has written, in which Santa is the hero and an evil international corporation worthy of a Bond film is the villain.
Adele next remembers two good friends whom we lost this year. In each case they are remembered in music.
Next Alan talks briefly about his native Ausralia and plays what both he and Adele regard as "The best song ever written", Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come".
We move on to hear about one of Jean's Creative Writing groups and she reads a story from her book "It's Never Too Late". She explains that the book is available for sale at £5 a copy and all proceeds go to Médecins Sans Frontières. If you would like to order a copy you can email Jean at
info@forestradio.co.uk
or at her own email address
jean.duggleby@talktalk.net.
Returning to the assembled group, Adele briefly interviews Fontana about her contribution to the early days of what was then called "Mill Radio" and discovers a shared connection with The Spiritualist Shop in the market. Fontana chooses Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" as her Christmas music choice.
Jean and I did a book-reading at the Walthamstow Central Library a few weeks before Christmas and although the sound recording we managed to make was not very high quality I have included here my own reading of a story called "The Literary Life" and an advert for my latest short story collection "Before I Go...". It's a sound-only recording accompanied by some still photograps of the event, and the full text of the story is included in the form of bloated subtitles. I hope you like it.
David.
Next we have Elton John's "Step Into Christmas" followed by a short "home movie" that Jean and I made on our return from a two week holiday break in Singapore.
After this comes "Snow in Walthamstow", a new Christmas single from Turncoat Billy. Published by State 51 and released on December 6th, it's part Christmas song and part ode to E17, blending (their publicity handout tells us) the usual observational wit of frontman Jonny Pickles with the hypnotic guitar sound of guitarist Luke Jacob. You can hear it on YouTube and it can be streamed at high quality from Spotify and Apple. In both cases you will need to have an account to listen.
The band will be live on December 20th at Lafayette, Kings Cross.
Cathy Cade writes children's books and runs the Creative Writing Group that Jean and I have recently joined.You can find out more about her by visiting her Amazon UK Author Page.
Staying with the spoken word, we next have a play for radio written by Jean and perrformed by her with Susan Furby, a friend of ours from one of our Creative Writing Groups, taking the other role in the two-hander. It's a comedy called "loneliness".
Time now for a bit more music and this is a song that Adele and I love and that we have included in all our recent Christmas Specials. It's written and performed by the Louisiana singer/songwriter Mary Gauthier. It's called "Christmas in Paradise",
We finish off with a short talk about pantomime as a theatrical genre from Elin Morgan, the newest and (by a big margin) youngest Forest Radio team member.
Thanks to all of you for keeping us company online over the years and we wish you everything you wish yourself for Christmas and the New Year.