John Peel

Charlie Higson: how the Radio Times saved The Fast Show

Actor, writer and comedian pays tribute to John Peel's magazine column for saving the iconic nineties sketch show.

Nearly ten years ago, student John Osborne won a box of records in a competition challenging listeners to write a slogan for the John Peel show. His winning nugget? "Records you want to hear, played by a man who wants you to hear them." You can see why his entry was picked - it's dry, avuncular and likeable, a bit like Peel himself.

And also much like this programme, in which Osborne uses his prize as a launch pad for a series of self-effacing and warmly funny anecdotes about how radio has affected his life. Listen out for the one starring a KitKat-eating skinhead: it's worth the admission fee alone.

Radio review: John Peel's Shed

A lovely meander through a music fan's formative years and his love for radio.

In the real shed in the late John Peel's garden lived the vast record collection that he'd built up over the years on Radio 1. He'd mention it on air, take favoured groups (like Pulp) round it, occasionally run a competition that featured it. The winner of one of those competitions in 2002 was John Osborne, who won a box of records that took him eight years to listen to. It was such a rich and strange experience that he made a stage show out of it, took it to the Edinburgh Fringe and now here it is on Radio 4, an ode to radio and the joys of listening.