Simon Toon

In the Drill Hall bar after the recording of The Now Show on Thursday, I had a great chat with Will Saunders, Deputy Head of BBC Radio Comedy, about podcasting and The Now Show. You can hear the recording I made on my personal podcast feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimonToon .

BBC flagship comedy podcast, The Now Show, hits the podosphere tonight. I was lucky enough to be invited to see the recording of the topical comedy show last night, which will be broadcast on Radio 4 at 6.30pm and then be made available as a podcast at 7pm. It was an absolutely hilarious show, and included a very funny podcasting-oriented song by Mitch Benn, which may or may not make it into the final edit. I've been a fan of this radio show for many years, and it's great to see it join the BBC's podcasting trial. It's a flagship in my book, as it is BBC radio's first proper comedy show to break through all the comedy writer licensing issues and be made available for people to download for free and store on their hard drives in perpetuity. I hope this will be the first of many, and if it is successful in the podosphere I'm sure it will be. The keys to its success in the podosphere will be the quality of the writing, and the position the BBC has in being able to ...

It worked! The petition worked! A Bit of Fry and Laurie Series 1 will be available on DVD from Monday!

Today I did a show of The Rantings of a Northern Bloke for Andy while he's away in Wales. Well, actually Andy did all the talking really, recording it on my answerphone. I just did all the technical stuff. Fun! I hope I can do that again. Hopefully also Paul will record something for the show soon.

Issue 2 of PodcastUser Magazine is now available to download for FREE! You can also susbcribe to an RSS feed to get the new issues immediately! I've got an article in there and Andy Taylor has got a letter in there aswell. Enjoy!

BBC News: Video shows Bush Katrina warning USA President Bush, the man who said no-one could have foreseen the breach of the levees in New Orleans, has been shown on video being told by Michael Brown that the levees had a strong possibilty of breaching and that all available resources should be made available. Bush is either incompetant, or a liar. Either way, he is unfit for office and must go.

Adrian Pegg has done it again: he has pointed out this petition hoping to get Channel 4 to make Peep Show series 4.

The Podcast Magazine I have been involved with seems to have gone down really well! It's called Podcast User Magazine, but it's not just for users – it's also for podcast creators and businesses interested in using podcasting. It's a free PDF download, too! Check it out!

It's out! Podcast User Magazine is now available to download! Well done and congratulations to everyone involved in its production. You all worked bloody hard. Download it, and blog about it, now! Point to it here: http://podcastusermagazine.com

Just like podcastpaul and Phil Coyne , I'm jolly excited to have an article of mine published in the new : Podcast User magazine that will be coming out very very soon. Keep checking here for further details. (Sorry, Paul, it's no longer an exclusive for you.)

Please everyone, sign this petition for 'A bit of Fry and Laurie' to be released on DVD.

I think Andy is amazingly brave to read out his own private diary from 8 years ago on his podcast. I wonder if his wife has heard it? Knowing Andy, she probably has. Anyway I think it's really touching to hear what was important to him in his life back then when he must have been about 17 years of age. It's really cool that he is doing this. By the way, I still owe you some happy new year wishes: Happy New Year!

Here is some awesome news. Why I why did it take the BBC so long to realise the talent in these two excellent comedy writers? I'm so looking forward to this pilot.

Hey, this could be just what what Madge Weinstein and I are looking for. Now they just need to make it plug into the rating system on the iPod and iTunes and it will be perfect!

Kosso make a very good point here . Surely podcasters couldn't be that short sighted? The site is completely oriented to pre-selling the Expo. At least Britcaster.com provided a forum for PodcastCon UK, before and after.

Here is the MP3 file that Paul was asking for.

I wonder whether Paul will teach me how to trackback.

Yesterday evening I went to see Stephen Fry talking about his new book, 'The Ode Less Travelled' at the Institute of Education (sponsored by Blackwell's) in London. It was a marvellous evening, and at the end he was nice enough to sign books for the huge queue of fans. I was near the back of the queue, so I had to wait for ages, but when I introduced myself he remembered me and jumped up to shake my hand, which was a nice boost to my ego, as I'm sure you'd imagine. He also congratulated me on the podcast and told me he has subscribed. Wowee! I thanked him for being such an inspiration, and left on a bit of a cloud. (I include a link to someone else's photograph of the signing.)

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Well, today was my first day working at my new job. I was apprehensive of course, due to my nervousness at changing jobs. I spent 3 fabulous years at my old firm, and learned so much, and really became integral - part of the furniture. I am very sad to leave behind so many wonderful colleagues, who were (mostly) lovely people and very kind to me. If you, reader, are among that number then you'll know I would love you to remain in touch. I had a small but wonderful leaving meal on Thursday, and though it was a shame that not all of the people that wanted to come were able to, I'm sure we'll meet, and eat, again. Thursday seems like a very long time ago, so back to today. Despite my aforementioned apprehension it was a very good day and I'm really excited about the new challenges that lie ahead of me. My new colleagues all seem to be very nice and welcoming. How I wish I could memorise all their names on the first day, but of course that is impossible. I'm sure I reme...