London Calling

Now, where were we?

Oh, yes. Time to catch up with old (and we mean old!) friends. Toby has a health scare and James is having more than a few regrets about missed opportunities and the loss of weekly get togethers.

But, of course, if there was always one thing we all could agree one it was good books and criticising the telly. This month we take on the BBC's self examination in The Reckoning which has Steve Coogan playing disgraced BBC presenter and notorious pedophile Jimmy Savile, Isaac Asimov's Foundation (AppleTV), One Piece (Netflix) and The Boys spinoff, Gen V (Prime).

Opening sound this week is actor Steve Coogan talking about playing Jimmy Savile on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg (BBC One)

In 1935 Cole Porter penned a tune called "Just One of Those Things" about a love affair "too hot not to cool down." And so it goes.

What started out as a podcast critiquing Game Of Thrones relaunched as London Calling on Nov. 6, 2015. We've been around for five Prime Ministers, three US Presidents, two Monarchs, Brexit and a worldwide pandemic. Our intrepid duo has broadcast from 11 different countries from three different continents with barely a week off. And now we're taking a break.

This is not goodbye but "until we meet again." Toby and James will return in October with a slightly revamped programme and the plan (for now) is come to you once a month after that. Stay tuned.

So goodbye, goodbye, bye, bye, goodbye baby and amen -
Here's hoping we'll meet now and then...
It was great fun
But it was just one of those things.

Opening sound this week comes to you from KHNL, Honolulu.

Everyone is a little miserable this week, fueled by the rainy summer England has had this year.
Or maybe because we're all getting a little bit older. James "celebrated" #58 this past weekend and Toby isn't looking forward to #60 due this October.

Toby tells James about having lunch with Sean Langan, who’s just back from the Donbas where he’s been making a documentary about the Ukrainian war seen through the eyes of Russian conscripts.

James pulls Toby up about last week’s episode, in which he thinks Toby “attacked” him; Toby assures James that no one put him up to it (not even our producer, Evil Brian) and, in Culture Corner, Toby praises Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and season two of Yellowstone, while James says how much he enjoyed The Chosen One, a new Netflix series from Mark Miller, and describes Anna Karenina as the best novel he’s ever read.

This week James and Toby open the discussion with James’ recent gig in Dorset and the division in towns like Bridport and Totnes between the woke and the awake, particularly over traffic calming measures like LTNs, Ulez schemes and 15-minute cities.

They go on to talk about Yuval Harari’s calling for ‘conspiracy theorists’ to be banned from the internet and Toby ask James to respond to Harari’s claim that many conspiracy theories, particularly those that blame the world’s problems on an elite cabal of billionaires and their acolytes, have an antisemitic component and that leads to a bigger argument about whether James’s conspiracy theory about the ‘death jabs,' Paul McCartney and 'manufactured' bands.

In Culture Corner, Toby heaps praise on They Cloned Tyrone, a new sci-fi conspiracy thriller (Netflix) and Lioness, the new Taylor Sheridan series (Paramount+), while James enthuses about Kohrra, an Indian police procedural (Netflix.)

This week's opening sound is Yuval Noah Harari's appearance on The Lex Fridman Podcast #390.

It's hot in the Mediterranean and James and Toby discuss the recent forest fires in Greece and whether climate change or arsonists are to blame. This triggers an argument (From these two? Really?) about whether there are enough honest journalists left to expose such wrongdoing and that, in turn, leads to a heated discussion about whether the journalist Ross Clark is a genuine climate contrarian because concedes that the world has got a little bit warmer in the past 150 years.

We then segue into a discussion of their holidays this year, both those they've already had and those they are planning, with James saying he may go to Amsterdam which leads to agreement that cannabis should probably not be legalised.

Finally, in Culture Corner, James discusses the new University Challenge, as well as having almost finished Anna Karenina – which he declares the best novel he’s ever read – while Toby gives a lukewarm review to Hijack.

Opening sound this week is CapX editor discussing Michael Gove's backtracking on Net Zero.

"The best laid plans of mice and men," said Rabbie Burns, "often go awry." And so it is as Toby tells James about how his travel plans have gone over the past fortnight, even though he’s in Majorca with his wife and four children.

Better to be on holiday in Spain than to be in England with a hacked Twitter account. James' Twitter profile (and his followers) have been hijacked by a crypto currency scammer.

They then discuss the weird ‘crossover’ podcast in which Nick Dixon, Toby’s other podcasting partner, interviewed James for his other podcast, The Current Thing.

In Culture Corner, Toby praises season 1 of The Tulsa King (Paramount+) while James has been watching Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate (Netflix) and The Traitors: Australia (BBC3 and i-Player in the UK; there is an American version that runs on Peacock.)

Opening sound this week is Novak Djokovic's gracious speech after his Finals loss at Wimbledon.

Toby is in Ibiza and James is in a funk as the diet he's on fails to really kick in and that leads to a discussion on DNA, genetically altered mosquitos, Bill Gates, lost friends and cocaine. Yep, it's quite the journey.

On a serious note the lads take on the immigration crisis taking place all across Europe and especially the riots that have rocked France.

In Culture Corner we begin with Wimbledon and the crowd's treatment of Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, who was booed off the court after losing to the Ukranian Elina Svitolina. And since it's summertime we concentrate on books instead of television.

Opening sound this week is Azarenka in her post match press conference.

After the usual chit-chat about the week gone by, Toby and James have a substantive talk about the limits of free speech and what constitutes "crossing the line." It's all spurred on by the revelation last week that former UKIP party boss - and now GBNews personality - Nigel Farage has been "de-banked."

In Culture Corner the spotlight falls on the new Idris Elba series, Hijack (AppleTV+) and Toby recalls the life an Englishman in America on the Fourth of July.

Opening sound this week is Farage explaining his predicament on Twitter.

This week Toby tells James about his event-filled diary last week, the climax of which was bumping into Boris Johnson at a party and explaining to him why Tobes was so disappointed by his decision to tell us all to stay in our homes three years ago; a close second was attending a one-day conference on Friday chaired by the American journalist Michael Shellenberger about how to fight back against the censorship-industrial complex.

Then it's on to the implosion of the Titan submersible. One of the lads thinks the news drip may have been a ‘psy op’ (Not saying who...) We also cover the "failed coup" in Russia led by the Wagner Group and whether it was all a cunning ploy so Putin could place Prigozhin and his forces North of Kiev without raising Ukrainian alarm bells.

In Culture Corner James complains about The Covenant, which he dismisses as “regime propaganda”, and Toby praises Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which he saw last week with his 15 year-old son.

James began the week attending a "speed awareness" course, having been nicked going a wee bit too fast on the way to an appointment. Early on in the programme James thinks that he has finally... FINALLY... brought Toby over to Team James, only to have his hopes dashed later in the show.

Yes, mummy and daddy have a bit a tiff this week that temporarily devolves into a cable news panel show, but we do our best to get it back on the rails so we can bring you the ever popular Culture Corner. Toby touts a new web site designed to help you discover if a show is more politics than entertainment and then offers his own advice on The Covenant, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+), and Extraction 2 (Netflix), while James gives a thumbs up to Tour de France: Unchained (Netflix).

Opening sound this week is from Episode 3 of Tucker Carlson's Twitter monologues that sparks heated debate among James and Toby.