Picture from WN
As someone who has embraced the medium of podcasting I was surprised to find out how relatively young the idea is. The idea was toyed around with from the 1980s but of course the technology wasn't there to be able to host them. It wasn't until the early 2000s that the podcast began to gather pace, despite the fact that nobody really know what it was. I have written before that as late as 2007 I was ahead of my time with the idea that the Internet could one day take over from television and radio and when I tried to tell people about it I was met with blank stares.
Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington had gained cult popularity for their Saturday lunchtime radio show on XFM and capitalised on this with a series of those new fangled podcast things available through The Guardian. As I was a little late to the MP3 player party I didn't listen to it as I had no access to it. Amazingly for 2005 it became a success and broke all records for the amount of downloads resulting in Ricky Gervais becoming the poster boy for podcasting which meant that every article about this new thing was accompanied by a photo of Gervais with Merchant and Pilkington. The concept of something that resembles radio but isn't on the radio was something you couldn't explain, just like in 2005 YouTube was only a quirky website that displayed short videos of cats on skateboards and now it is a legitimate way to broadcast.
Someone has set up a copyright ignoring YouTube channel to host all of these old podcasts so I have been listening to them for the first time. I have never used Apple and Audible fucked up an old computer of mine so I don't trust it enough to use it again so I'm glad that these shows are up. The Ricky Gervais Show ran for one series of six podcasts from The Guardian and then from series two they were available for a fee (and reclassified as audiobooks because podcasts were free in those days). This was followed by The Ricky Gervais Guide To... which ran to two series and various themed specials, they returned to The Guardian to do three free seasonal specials as a thank you for the huge volume of downloads, and this YouTube user has also included the Christmas Eve and New Years Eve Radio 2 shows, the NME Radio pilot and a huge amount of XFM shows.
It is interesting to hear Gervais and Merchant at that stage in their careers when they were riding high on The Office and about to go into Extras, yet they didn't come across as the superstars they were to become. The most intriguing aspect is the development of Karl Pilkington, originally a producer on XFM hired to push the buttons and eventually filtered in by being introduced to the listeners via questions and involvement with the two stars. In the beginning he came across as a total thicko but along the way he starts to make sense and actually proves himself to be rather intelligent. By the time we get to the Guide podcasts there's an element of awareness in Karl's delivery and dare I suggest preparation? There was a time when Gervais was accused of creating the Pilkington character and that he was played by an actor. Whether or not this is true I couldn't possibly comment, but if it is true then there is a character to rival any Harry Enfield creation.
The Sunday Alternative #49 is available from here.
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July Housekeeping
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steveEoliver@gmail.com
