Spectator Out Loud Christmas Special: Lara Prendergast, Christopher Howse, Lionel Shriver, Peter Hitchens, Joanna Lumley, Caroline Moore
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2021
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Then it's, Lionel Shriver on the Covid heretics she admires most. (16:41)
Followed by, Peter Hitchens on Christmas in Russia during the last days of the Soviet Union. (25:23)
Penultimately, we have Joanna Lumley on getting the key to the Sistine Chapel. (35:69)
Subscribe to The Spectator magazine this Christmas and get the next 12 issues – in print and online – for just £12. Not only that but you’ll also receive a bottle of Taittinger champagne, worth £42, to see you through to the new year. Join the party today at www.spectator.co.uk/celebrate
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Get 12 issues of The Spectator for just £12 when you subscribe this Christmas |
| 0:05.0 | and you can get a free bottle of Tattinger champagne. |
| 0:08.0 | Just go to spectator Out Loud. |
| 0:24.9 | This week, we've taken six of our favourite writers from our triple-sized Christmas issue |
| 0:29.0 | to read their pieces to get you in the festive mood. |
| 0:32.3 | This week we'll hear from Laura Prendergast on why she's planning to party hard this Christmas. |
| 0:37.2 | Christopher House, on those helping to preserve to party hard this Christmas. Christopher House, |
| 0:38.2 | on those helping to preserve the UK's medieval churches. Lionel Shriver on the COVID heretics |
| 0:43.5 | she admires most. Peter Hitchens, on Christmas in Russia in the last days of the Soviet Union. |
| 0:49.8 | Joanna Lumley on getting the keys to the Sistine Chapel and Caroline Moore on how ghost stories became a British Christmas tradition. |
| 0:57.3 | First up, it's Lara Prendergast. |
| 0:59.8 | How well behaved have you been in the second year of COVID? |
| 1:03.5 | I wouldn't say I've been perfect, but I haven't been that bad. |
| 1:07.6 | I've done most of the things the government has demanded of me. |
| 1:12.9 | I've had both my COVID jabs. I've done most of the things the government has demanded of me. I've had both my COVID jabs. |
| 1:19.3 | I've downloaded a vaccine passport, even though I hate the idea. I've squelched anti-back gel onto my hands most times I've taken the tube. I've shoved countless cotton swabs down my throat |
| 1:24.8 | and up my nose. I've worn my mask. We all did lots of this stuff, |
| 1:30.7 | in the hope that life would get back to normal, whatever that means. But the threat of Christmas |
| 1:36.1 | being cancelled hangs over us once more. According to the headlines, the Prime Minister is |
| 1:42.4 | battling to save Christmas from Omicron, this year's super villain. |
| 1:47.0 | It's last Christmas, the sequel, only this time the virus is even more contagious and can only be defeated if we get our third, fourth, fifth, booster jabs. |
| 1:57.0 | Boris has promised us he is absolutely confident that this Christmas is going to be better than last years. |
... |
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