The Badger Hole of Ignorance - Episode 1 - Mummies, Jungles and Lost Properties

Last Monday (30th) the first episode in Series Five of The Museum of Curiosity was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It featured presenter John Lloyd CBE and new curator Humphrey Ker with guests Egyptology Professor Joann Fletcher, explorer and altruist Colonel John Blashford-Snell, and comedian and environmentalist Mark Watson.

Photo copyright: Stevyn Colgan

Here's The Badger Hole of Ignorance Episode 1 podcast in which producers Dan Schreiber and Richard Turner discuss the episode with host Ken Plume:



Secondly, here's Jo Fletcher's extraordinary documentary - in full - telling the story of how she and her colleagues revived 2000 year old techniques to mummify a modern man. Mummifying Alan: Egypt's Last Secret is the fascinating, touching and respectful story of a very brave man facing his own death and of the dedicated scientists who worked hard to make his death something special and celebratory while also increasing the sum of human knowledge.



Next up, here's the documentary The Mission: A Grand Adventure in which 'Blashers' delivers a baby grand piano to the Wei Wei tribe in the middle of the Guyanese rain forest. Glorious British eccentricity at its best (sadly, the sound quality is a bit rough but quite watchable):



And here's Mark Watson in Australia doing some fantastic stand up (NSFW!):



More next week.

Final visit to the Museum

Last night we recorded the final episode of Series Six of The Museum of Curiosity with Sir Howard Stringer (former head of Sony and NBC and possibly the only Oxford graduate drafted to fight in Vietnam for the US Army), Richard Ingrams (co-creator of Private Eye and The Oldie magazines), and Jane Bussmann (Comedy writer for Brass Eye, The Fast Show, Smack the Pony, South Park and the woman who exposed African terrorist Joseph Kony's activities to the West). What an endlessly fascinating group of people they were.

Photo: Stevyn Colgan

I'm very proud to work on such an amazing show. It's just a shame that more people don't know about it. In this age of myriad hi-def 3D TV channels, the radio is seen as very much the poor relation. But radio is where all the interesting stuff is. I doubt that we'd ever be able to sell the idea of the Museum to TV execs and yet it fulfils everything that Lord Reith insisted upon when the BBC was created: It educates, informs and entertains, absolutely to the letter. How many other shows can say the same?

Roll on Series Seven.

Fourth Visit to the Museum

We recorded Episode 4 of Series 6 of The Museum of Curiosity last night at the Shaw Theatre in Euston. It's the first time we've used it for this show and it's a lovely venue. On the panel we had astrophysicist and satellite designer Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, ex-GP, stand-up comedian, champion quizzer and star of The Chase Dr Paul Sinha and the legend that is Sir David Frost.

Another warm, witty, intelligent and occasionally hilarious episode in the can.

Two to go and still some great guests to come.

Photo: Stevyn Colgan

Third visit to the Museum

We recorded show 3 of series 6 of The Museum of Curiosity last night at the BBC Radio Theatre. Host John Lloyd and curator Humphrey Ker were joined by comedian and author Mark Watson, explorer and all-round adventurer Colonel John Blashford-Snell, and BAFTA award-winning Egyptologist Professor Joann Fletcher who, as you may know, was involved last year in the first mummification of a human being (using ancient Egyptian methods) for 3000 years.

Another amazing panel. Another amazing show in the can.

Photo: Stevyn Colgan

Another Great Week

Another busy week and another seven days of meeting splendid human beings. Work continues apace on finalising the scripts for the new series of The Museum of Curiosity, which starts recording this evening, Sunday 23rd June. This year we have the rather splendid Humphrey Ker on board as our curator; he joins the stellar cast of previous curators we've enjoyed during the last five series, namely Bill Bailey, Sean Lock, John Richardson, Dave Gorman and Jimmy Carr. If you don't know who Humphrey is ... trust us, you will soon.

He's absolutely brilliant and he's going to be HUGE. Mind you, at 6'7" tall, he's already most of the way there. Click here to see a great little sketch for Funny or Die.

In other news, Tuesday saw the release of my book Constable Colgan's Connectoscope in e-book format. So, if you pledged on the book, you can now download it in pdf, e-pub or mobi formats at the Unbound site here.

On Thursday I ran a charity quiz night at the Frontline Club in London. It's the members club for journalists and foreign correspondents and all the money raised goes to the families of the brave souls who risked their lives - and lost - to expose injustice and report on war crimes and other atrocities in the most dangerous parts of the world.

Friday was a busy day with two events to attend. First up was Creat-ED, an 'un-conference' for educators and learning technologists, held at the Barbican Arts Centre in the City of London. The Barbican is quite a place, if you've not seen it. While it's a classic example of 1970's Brutalist concrete architecture, it sports fountains, ponds and waterfalls and an enclosed conservatory full of jungle greenery and tropical birds.

It's a great place to stage an event in although it is very large and takes a bit of time to navigate around. The event itself was all about getting creativity into education; moving from thought to deed. I was one of the guest speakers along with former Cocteau Twins musician Simon Raymonde, who now runs the excellent new music label Bella Union (which gave the world Fleet Foxes, Flaming Lips and others), and smart product designer Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino of Design Swarm; creator of the ingenious internet-based Good Night Lamp. An amazing day spent with the sorts of people I wish my kids had had as teachers at their schools; committed, clever, joyous, innovative.

I then went on to The Nave in Islington, a deconsecrated church, to speak at an event to mark World Humanist Day. Organised by the British Humanist Association, the One Life event featured performances from me, Andrew Copson, Professor Chris French, Iszi Lawrence and Alom Shaha and wonderful music by the BHA choir; an eclectic mix of secular songs including Lou Reed's Perfect Day, Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Elbow's One Day Like This and Monty Python's Universe Song and Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.

Wonderfully optimistic and uplifting without the hint of a need for God. A great end to a great week.