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Comedy of the Week

Henry Normal: A Normal Journey

Comedy of the Week

BBC

Comedy

42.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"Shove up National Treasures. We need to make room for Henry Normal" Simon O'Hagan - Radio Times

Join Henry Normal for the eleventh instalment of his acclaimed, occasional series in which the acclaimed, occasional writer tackles those subjects so big only radio can possibly contain them.

So far on this journey Henry has covered the subjects of ‘Family’, ‘Life’, ‘Love’, ‘Imagination’, ‘Nature’, ‘The Universe’, ‘Communication’, ‘Ageing’, ‘Community’ and ‘Home’; in this new episode he’ll be concentrating on the ‘Journey’ itself.

Through poems, jokes, and stories, we’ll discover what has made him the man he is today, and how everything in his life so far has led to this point - recording this latest show in Bury at The Met.

-- Henry Normal is a multi-award winning writer, producer and poet. Co-writer of award winning TV programmes such as The Royle Family, The Mrs Merton Show, Coogan’s Run and Paul Calf, and producer of, amongst many others, Oscar-Nominated Philomena, Gavin and Stacey and Alan Partridge.

He’s published ten collections of poetry including his most recent ‘The Fire Hills’. Plus his memoir written with Angela Pell ‘A Normal Family’ everyday adventure with our autistic son.

Praise for previous episodes in this series:

-"It's a rare and lovely thing: half an hour of radio that stops you short, gently demands your attention and then wipes your tears away while you have to have a little sit down" -"It's a real treat to hear a seasoned professional like Henry taking command of this evening comedy spot to deliver a show that's idiosyncratic and effortlessly funny" -"Not heard anything that jumps from hilarious to moving in such an intelligent, subtle way as Henry Normal's show"

Written and performed by Henry Normal Production Coordinator - Katie Baum Sound manager - David Thomas Produced by Carl Cooper

A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4

"An EcoAudio certified production"

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about the

0:03.8

podcast I work on. I'm Dan Clark and I commissioned factual podcasts at the BBC.

0:08.6

It's a massive area but I'd sum it up as stories to help us make sense of the forces shaping the world.

0:15.3

What podcasting does is give us the space and the time to take brilliant BBC journalism

0:19.8

and tell amazing compelling stories that really get behind the headlines.

0:23.7

And what I get really excited about is when we find a way of drawing you into a subject

0:28.4

you might not even have thought you were interested in.

0:30.2

Whether it's investigations, science, tech, politics, culture, true crime, the environment,

0:36.1

you can always discover more with a podcast on BBC Sounds.

0:39.7

BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. Okay. Thank you. My name is Enry Normal. Thank you, my name's Henry Normal, and in this show I'll be taking you on a journey to explore the theme of journey.

1:17.0

That is the act of traveling from one place to another, not the American soft rock band.

1:22.0

Although if you have been waiting for me to do a show about that particular band,

1:27.0

don't stop believing.

1:29.0

Hold on to that feeling, but don't hold your breath.

1:34.0

So I'm here tonight in a lovely Northern town, Berry.

1:38.0

Thank you.

1:41.0

Berry of course, named after what you do with dead bodies.

1:44.0

I'm particularly fond of Berry and the Northwest as I travelled here in my youth to find fame and fortune,

1:52.0

but a local Tory councillor tried to get me banned from Berry

1:55.9

for swearing before the Lord Mayor.

1:58.6

I didn't know it was his turn.

1:59.8

I love that people in Berry are proud of their town. I did a tour last year and I put a

...

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