Discontent Provider

Foxy and Arkham have been handed the murkier end of the stick by both the digital world and the elements this week - but for all that, they still salute their adversaries' open and frank hostility; it is, after all, so much easier to deal with than (to pick an example wholly at random) a political class who see it as pretty much comme il faut to lie to the faces of the parents of murdered children - if not positively de rigeuer.

As Democracy crumbles away like a frail frost-rimed cobweb on a Winter morn, the chaps in the Happy Place consider the potential of a possible (probable?) Prime Minister. In all honesty, it's not a cheery listen - but what is in these sadly debased times? To bring the week to an end, The Silver Fox attempts to get medieval on your ass with an olde-worlde ballad. Admittedly, those minstrels never had harmoincae - but he does use the word "prithee"; so it counts. Barely.

A new week begins, as does a New Era of Honesty in the Happy Place. It's not as though Foxy and Arkham were the most fearful fibbers or anything - but dishonest dealings at the COP-28 bunfight have rather borne upon them the importance of scrupulous truthfulness.

The normally hard-headed realists of the Happy Place find themselves pondering cosmic affairs as one of the most sacred Laws of Nature goes for a Burton. For all that, however, they manage to fit in some speculations on the coverage of a globally-significant figure who should never really have been anything more than a character Ronnie Barker invented for a "Two Ronnies" sketch.

A new week yawns wide open before us all - and, if the auguries are to be believed, the frail spirit of Hope might well be about to make a timid, faltering appearance. The chaps in the Happy Place would certainly like to think so - but they (and everybody else) have been fooled before... Also, Foxy and Arkham consider the role of the Monarchy in the international realm of rattling a cupful of coins and asking it anyone has any spare change - and are left indifferent by the spectacle of to of Britain's Worst People slinging mud at one another.

With the news being so full of misery and full-on loathsomeness that nobody wants to touch the damned thing with a six-foot Staff of Rassilon, can Foxy and Arkham be blamed for taking the opportunity afforded by a TV classic's 60th Anniversary to ponder matters more edifying? Probably - but they've done it anyway. 

This week finds Foxy and Arkham reflecting on the importance of narrative convention, sticking to the script, and the importance of not overwhelming the viewers with too many Big Doings in one go. It's all rather meta, really - but why not? They know that their listeners are a sophisticated crowd. Mind you; attempting a comparison between the Foreign Secretary and the Tenth Doctor might be something of a stretch even for them...

In an episode delayed by terrible technical issues, the chaps from the Happy Place puzzle over the Government's fixation upon Rwanda, and express concern over the plans to smash the citizenry's human rights into rubble. Also, those of a certain age (or those with a strangely anachronistic set of cultural references) might feel a touch of Flanders and Swann coming on vis-a-vis The Song At The End.

Grateful that their fears about unspeakable carnage 'pon the streets of Olde London Towne, the Happy Place's lovely layabouts begin to speculate upon unspeakable carnage within the ranks of the Conservative Party as the PM attempts to shuffle a handful of duds into something that would have made the Cincinnati Kid turn it in and go home.

As Armistice Day approaches, the Podcast To End All Podcasts considers the sticky position of peace-loving cats and kittens caught 'twixt two different groups of bellicose imbeciles - and expresses concern about where a potential Poppy Day punch-up might lead our beleagured country. Also - because they really don't know - Arkham and Foxy would love to find out what Real People do on weekends when the fabric of Democracy doesn't hang in the balance...