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May 25

British radio comedy

The article Comedian describes the origin of radio comedy in America, then jumps to Without a Hollywood supply of comedians to draw from, radio comedy did not begin in the United Kingdom until a generation later, i.e. the 1950s. This is opaque to me. Was there a steady stream of American acts on the BBC until 1930, then only talks and light music until the first Goon Show? Doug butler (talk) 15:02, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That's not how I would parse it. In the US, Hollywood comedians often moved to radio. Not having such a source, radio comedies didn't start in the UK until somewhat later. There's no mention of an existence and then a gap and then a resurgence; just a later creation. Personally, that still sounds dubious to me. Matt Deres (talk) 15:23, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks @Matt Deres:. You've given me the key to the OP's intention. Doug butler (talk) 21:52, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Our Lizzie (Helena Millais) broadcast "'comedy fragments from life" in 1922. That Child, a sitcom, was broadcast in 1926. Ronald Frankau "started broadcasting saucy jokes on the radio in an Etonian tone for the BBC" in 1925, Murgatroyd and Winterbottom were broadcast on the BBC from 1935, Band Waggon started in 1938, ITMA started in 1939. See Foster, Andy; Furst, Steve (1996). "1: The Beginnings of Radio Comedy and the 1930s". Radio Comedy 1938-1968 A Guide to 30 Years of Wonderful Wireless (PDF). London: Virgin Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-86369-960-X. DuncanHill (talk) 15:39, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Britain had a rich tradition of Music hall, Variety show and Pantomime comedy to draw on. A comparative (to the US) scarcity of comedy on earlier British radio is more likely a reflection of the attitudes of those controlling early radio content wanting a more 'highbrow' tone.

In the early 1920s the British Government via the General Post Office controlled licences to broadcast quite tightly, explicitly to avoid the potentially detrimental situation developing in the less-controlled US. They oversaw consolidation of the half-dozen significant commercial broadcasters into the BBC in 1922 and rendered this non-commercial in 1926. In a geographically smaller and more densely populated country, independent local radio broadcasting did not reappear until the 1960s.

Any residual discouragement of comedy on the radio was discarded during the Second World War, when many comedians and comedy (or comedy-containing) shows, such as Danger – Men at Work!, The Happidrome, Hi Gang!, It's That Man Again aka ITMA, Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh, Stand Easy, and Variety Bandbox were broadcast to maintain national morale. Further radio comedy shows appeared between 1945 and 1950.

The assertions in the (rather US PoV) articles Comedian (linked by the OP) and Radio Comedy that "Radio comedy did not begin in the United Kingdom until a generation later, with such popular 1950s shows as . . ." are simply inaccurate. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.154.147 (talk) 19:05, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That's really useful, thank you. Doug butler (talk) 22:31, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Doug butler, I found 1940s BBC Comedy - A selection of English comedy radio shows from the 1940s.

Also The BBC's first comedy star – and how he fell into obscurity, an article about Norman Clapham (stage name John Henry) who was the first resident comedian on BBC Radio, working from May 1923 until the death of his stage partner and lover, followed by his subsequent suicide in 1934. Alansplodge (talk) 16:50, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Because I Tell a Joke or Two: Comedy, Politics and Social Difference (p. 3) has a brief overview of British radio sitcoms in the 1930s and 1940s.

Alansplodge (talk) 16:50, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

A sad story, and most interesting. Thanks AS. Doug butler (talk) 22:11, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Oscar Wilde BBC Radio Drama Collection

Can I ask are both part 1 and 2 from The Trials of Oscar Wilde from 1996 from the BBC radio series Saturday Playhouse read by Simon Russell Beale included on the audio CD The Oscar Wilde BBC Radio Drama Collection. Matthew John Drummond (talk) 15:23, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Matthew John Drummond: By the looks of this page no, The Trials of Oscar Wilde is not included. I haven't been able to find a release of the Saturday Playhouse production, which was written by Christopher Fits-Simon. DuncanHill (talk) 20:30, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The page says Simon Russell Beale (Read by) on the website and The Trials of Oscar Wilde the BBC radio series Saturday Playhouse is the only radio adaptation that Simon Russell Beale has been in. Matthew John Drummond (talk) 21:27, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It says "Moving examples of his correspondence are revealed in The Letters of Oscar Wilde and De Profundis, read by Simon Callow and Simon Russell Beale respectively".

May 29

Re-watching The Passion of The Christ for the first time in years

Talking about the scene where Pilate orders Jesus to be flogged (in the hope that this will appease the angry mob), but not killed. Then the Roman soldiers proceed to go too far once they've got him on their own and absolutely beat the hell out of him with spiked flails to the point that his skin is falling off and you can see his ribs exposed. They would surely have continued until he was dead if their Centurion hadn't walked in and angrily stopped them.

I've never read the majority of The Bible. Was it ever explained why the soldiers disobeyed direct orders? Or was this something solely from the movie? 146.200.107.90 (talk) 15:06, 29 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Bible doesn't go into that much detail on the flogging. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 16:50, 29 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

In fact, each of the gospels states merely that Pilate had Jesus flogged^[1][2][3] or that he would have him punished.^[4] ‑‑Lambiam 20:41, 29 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It's called dramatization. Shantavira|^{feed me} 18:17, 29 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

A lot of the detail was derived from "purported mystical visions attributed to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich". -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:33, 29 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I just saw another website that said that. As far as these things go, does this count as "historically accurate" then, as far as these things go? Seems like Gibson did more research on this movie than he did for Braveheart. 146.200.107.90 (talk) 22:56, 29 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It's "historically accurate" insofar as some people previously imagined or "had visions" of such things. How much any of it conforms to actual, but undocumented, details of the events centuries earlier is, to say the least, unprovable. {The poster formerly known as 87.981.230.195} 90.193.154.147 (talk) 23:14, 29 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sure it's as historically accurate as any other Biblical epic. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:47, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

More so since it's 0% English 100% subtitles. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 02:06, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

So it is just as historically accurate as, for example, Michelangelo's portrayal of the serpent of Eden. ‑‑Lambiam 09:19, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

You mean they didn't talk English, like in Ben-Hur? A mix of American, British and Israeli accents? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:06, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know if you know it's 100% subtitles not speaking English with an Aramaic/Latin/Hebrew accent. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 03:43, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. Although I didn't see the movie, I had understood it was in Aramaic with some brand of English in subtitles. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:17, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The original plan was 100% Aramaic/Latin/Hebrew no subtitles whatsoever. Pilate spoke broken Aramaic to Jesus He answer in Latin due to omniscience Pilate surprised as not many Jewish persons in Israel knew it. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 05:34, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Language of Jesus § Other languages suggests that Romans and Jews would communicate in Greek, as the lingua franca of the Empire (see also Roman Empire § Languages). Note also John 19:20. 213.143.143.69 (talk) 13:44, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Which would make Pilate surprised as a Jewish Israeli would want to learn Greek and/or Hebrew before Latin and the family name Pontius suggests Samnite from Italy. Could the Jesus unit(s) have been Latinophone or would they be Grecophone and/or Aramaophone to minimize long expensive travel? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 14:39, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

To be clear, the term Israeli is normally used only to refer to the people of the modern State of Israel (since 1948). It would not normally be used to refer to a person who lived there during the time of the Roman Empire, or earlier, or any time before the mid-20th century. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 15:44, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

A Jew in Judaea would probably have self-identified as עִבְרַי (ʿiḇray), or when speaking Koine Ἑβραῖος (Hebraîos). A common English exonym is Israelite, which however has too many meanings to be very useful. ‑‑Lambiam 06:43, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That said, Yeshua was from all the evidence a native of Galilee (though he may not have been born there) rather than Judaea.

Galilee was formerly part of Israel, not Judah, had at that date a separate ruler (Herod Antipas) to Judaea (which Pilate ruled directly), was separated from Judah by Samaria, whose capital of the same name had been Israel's capital, and Galileans had, amongst other things, a distinctive accent that Judaeans recognised and sometimes mocked (hence the account of Peter being recognised as a follower of Yeshua by his accent).

The identity of Israel as a nation encompassing Judah still had religious significance – from Daniel and other apocalyptic texts, "The Son of Man" was understood as a sort of divine personification of Israel, who was to lead an angelic assault that would restore a true Messiah (a Davidic-descended king) to the re-united throne – so Jeshua might have used it in some contexts, though probably not in speaking to Pilate on whom the nuances would have been lost. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.154.147 (talk) 09:16, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

May 30

Beatles song genre

Our article on Don't Pass Me By tells me that it is country rock. The source is dead. I see neither country nor rock in the song. Country rock is supposed to involve "country themes, vocal styles, and additional instrumentation, most characteristically pedal steel guitars." There are no pedal steel guitars. Must we say "country rock"? HiLo48 (talk) 05:50, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Personally I have no problem with calling the song country rock. The critical reception song lists several sources which describe it as a countryish song. And the country rock article refers to the song in the "expansion" section. What genre would you describe it as? --Viennese Waltz 06:27, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

None of the common ones. Is it required that a song have a genre? HiLo48 (talk) 07:03, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

If you mean is it required for the infobox, then I don't know - speak to the people in charge of that infobox. If you mean in general, yes - it's possible to assign a genre to every piece of music. --Viennese Waltz 07:16, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That's a pretty absolute claim. Got a source for it? HiLo48 (talk) 07:25, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The genre is "no genre"....196.50.199.218 (talk) 08:44, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Obviously you can give any item (song) a classification (genre). But some classifications will be pretty limited, possibly only a single item will be included. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 12:26, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That means you'd have to come up with a name for this putative genre, and if it contained only one example it would hardly be a recognised genre, would it now? Just because some piece can't be neatly slotted into any existing genre doesn't mean it's in a genre of its own. It's simply unclassifiable. If you can find 50 pieces of unclassifiable music, they wouldn't form an "unclassified" genre. No, each would be uniquely unclassifiable, and none of them would get a genre name. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:32, 31 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Why wouldn't they? I see no problem with a single piece being its own genre. Every genre starts with only a single example. Some become massively popular, inspiring a host of others. Some have more modest followings. And others remain singletons. That doesn't make them any less distinct. Maybe that comes from my bio background. There are many single species genera and even single species families. All that matters is their distinction from other genera or families. The idea of single piece genres seems perfectly fine to me. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 00:07, 2 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe it works in scientific nomenclature. And in mathematics there's the empty set (some non-mathematicians might say it's not a set at all). Not so with creative arts. Types of music only become a genre when there's a critical-enough mass of them for people to notice the similarities. John Cage is famous for his "4′33″", which consists of a pianist sitting at the piano and playing literally nothing, for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. That could never possibly become a genre, because the idea has exactly one possible manifestation. Anyone writing 9 minutes and 17 seconds of silent music ("Variations on a Theme by John Cage", perhaps?) would be laughed out of town as a musical plagiarist par excellence. A concert of music of this putative genre would consist of John Cage's piece played 20 times, because that's the sole piece of that type, and there will never be another. For the same reason, Wikipedia does not permit categories to be created that contain only one article. Categories and genres consist of multiple things of the same type. No multiples means no genres and no categories. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:15, 2 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

maybe the audio equivalent of "watching paint dry"? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:20, 2 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

1) I would say that 7 minutes and 54 seconds of someone not playing a saxophone would be a different piece from the 4 minutes 33 seconds of not playing a piano that you mention, but both would be in the same genre. 2) Not being allowed to create a category within the Wikipedia system is not the same as the category not existing in the real world. 3) I do wonder, though, if you would disagree with dividing the world into the categories "me" and "not me".--User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 20:39, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

How would that differ from playing a brand-new blank tape? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:06, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Jack was mistaken about the instrumentation of 4'33". It is for any number and combination of instruments. Mike Batt staged a publicity stunt for one of his records by including a track "A One Minute Silence", saying in one minute what Cage took 4'33" to say. Personally I think Cage plagiarised remembrance services. DuncanHill (talk) 22:26, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I stand corrected about the instrumentation, but in this case it really is a distinction without a difference. Silences at remembrance services are not about absence of music per se. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 23:42, 6 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Music Genome Project in this discussion. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 04:08, 7 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sure I've been to such services where the "minute of silence"occurred with instrumental musical accompaniment. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 18:30, 8 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

On the "The Beatles" website (maintained by Apple Corps, so it can hardly get more official), the infobox on their page for "Don't Pass Me By" has "Genre Country rock". ‑‑Lambiam 09:05, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Official. Maybe. But I don't understand it. HiLo48 (talk) 09:39, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Many of the songs that Ringo sang for the Beatles, and in his subsequent solo career, have a country style to them. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:38, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I've seen an interview with Paul where he says Ringo introduced the rest of the band to country music when he joined, he had loads of albums they'd never heard of. DuncanHill (talk) 21:34, 2 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There's a very country style to the fiddle playing in it. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 12:29, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There's that, there's the chorus's final "don't pass me by" (after "I hate to see you go") which can remind one of "because you're mine" in "I Walk the Line" ... the verses can remind one of folky ballad stanzas as heard, for example, in "The Yellow Rose of Texas". Personally, I think country rock is fitting enough (and I'm not a huge fan of genre categorization). ---Sluzzelin talk 21:55, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

And the western saloon piano. DuncanHill (talk) 21:34, 2 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

June 1

Please help to fact-check this page

Hi, I'm a volunteer reviewing the article. It passes all formal requirements, so I am now going to approve the draft. But due to the intense sport vocabulary used, I cannot understand, nor verify, that 100% of the content is correct. Could you please check it? If there is something wrong, edits may be made within up to 24 hours from now. Thank you! Gryllida (talk, e-mail) 10:53, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm trying to figure out why this is newsworthy outside a routine sports coverage page such as ESPN.com. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:43, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That page is blank, but the current top article on Wikinews matches the title. Card Zero (talk) 11:58, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think the OP meant to link to n:Baseball: Detroit Tigers sweep San Francisco Giants, making their fourth win in a row. The main problem I see with this article is a lack of freshness; I'm not sure who would be looking for an article about a May 28 baseball game that doesn't get published until June 1, after the Detroit Tigers had already played other games on May 30 and 31. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 21:13, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

June 3

Sacred site (1986)

Where can I find Sacred site (1986), a short film (~7min). Polygnotus (talk) 04:46, 3 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The film's entry and user reviews [here] on IMDB (not a "Reliable source" for Wikipedia) suggest that because it is an IMAX film shot on 70mm film stock and is so short, it is economically impractical to transfer it to another more accessible medium.

However, these were only user opinions of uncertain date, so it's possible that the transfer has subsequently been done. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.192.228.242 (talk) 07:09, 3 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Quay South book plot.

I've been looking so much trying to find what the full plot is of the 1947 book titled Quay South which was released by Howard Clewes. I'm also trying to find out what each character does in the plot and what happens to them by the end of the book. Matthew John Drummond (talk) 16:29, 3 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

We have an article on screenwriter and novelist author Howard Clewes: this title (it is in fact a play) is not in its (admittedly incomplete) list of his works, so is evidently somewhat obscure, which means there is unlikely to be any published detailed synopsis of it.

The only practical way to find the information would seem to me to be to obtain a second-hand copy of the volume and read it. Websearching brings up a number of copies for sale priced variously under £20. You might also enquire at a Public Library to see if there is a copy available via inter-library loan.

I expect you already know, given your interests, that the work was adapted for television and that DVD and Blu-ray versions of this are also available. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.192.228.242 (talk) 18:40, 3 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Here you go! Found a review of Quay South. Only a paragraph, I'm afraid, so it doesn't meet your request for full details. (I happened to discover that one character is called Elwes, if that helps any. There's also a 1955 adaptation for "ITV Television Playhouse" with plot outlines available around the web: again not much detail. Theatre World in 1948 mentions that "Its scene was laid in an inn parlour in a derelict seaport; with a cast of eight men and two women.") Card Zero (talk) 19:56, 3 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

June 5

Device

In the horror flick Storm Warning (2007 film) the hostage Pia, knowing she is to be raped and probably killed the following morning, fabricates an anti-rapist device to be worn internally. When her husband, hors de combat with a fractured femur, protests, she argues "what, do nothing and see what happens next?" Unsurprisingly her ploy succeeds, but in a most satisfyingly gruesome fashion. My query is: of what did she fabricate the (not so tender) trap? The device is shown in one of the publicity posters. Doug butler (talk) 06:18, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

See Anti-rape device for an image of the Rape-aXe which this could be an allusion to. Nanonic (talk) 08:00, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

See also Vagina dentata. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:58, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think my joke was better. But I'm trying to improve the article. It looks like she modified some kind of personal device that's way outside my experience. Doug butler (talk) 12:03, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That's good to know. In any case, the illustration of a chastity belt in the article I linked kind of employs the same idea. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:31, 6 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

According to this source (non-RS) it was fashioned from a pierced bottle lid. Other sources mention a broken bottle^[5] or a metal jar top with the center cut out as well as the bottom of a stubbie,^[6] a combination that fits with the image on the film poster. ‑‑Lambiam 16:27, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the Movie Chat link. That explanation fits perfectly and is plausible within the bounds of a B-grade horror flick. Being contributed by a woman gives it credibility. Doug butler (talk) 20:52, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

June 6

Billion with a B

[7] Article linked claims they have spent close to one billllioooon dollars developing this computer game, sounds like over a billion when they finish if they ever do. Is that some kind of record? I thought AAA games went into the tens of millions, but a beeellion? What is going on? This sounds like something from another planet. Even Hollywood hasn't figured out how to spend that much on movies, though per List of most expensive films they've gotten to maybe half that. Is there a list of expensive games? What goes into it? I'm sort of in shell shock, it's almost 100x more than I knew was actually done. 2601:644:8581:75B0:17B5:795B:F299:A83B (talk) 04:00, 6 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, List of most expensive video games to develop. The figure for Star Citizen may need updating. Card Zero (talk) 09:34, 6 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

June 8