The definitive list of my ten favourites:

1. Mark Kermode’s film reviews – discussion of movies from a professional who dresses like it’s still the 50s. And not ironically, unlike most of the things he says
2. Filmspotting – discussion of movies from two semi-pros who, without being particularly amusing, are very engaging
3. The Now Show – comedy and satire handled by experts
4. the show with zefrank – comedy and satire handled by a man with too much time on his hands
5. In Business – business news in the US always seemed to be about share prices or ways to get ahead. This one is about the things that businesses do, and the changes they bring about
6. In Our Time – discussions about pretty much anything, from imaginary numbers to Carolingian history. Just subscribing to this will impress the ladies
7. Penn Radio Podcast – a true libertarian who is also funny and good at shouting
8. This American Life – whiny effete East-coast radio done right (did I already make that joke? I did, didn’t I? Oh look, now I’m being self-referential by over-analyzing the minutiae of my life. Hey, I should tape this and put it on This American Life
9. On The Media – not the best news show out there, but the only one I know of where you get to hear a certain ‘you’re kidding me, right?’ tone in the presenter’s voices when questioning a blowhard from either party
10. Best of Moyles – fart jokes

and the obligatory bonus item, French Maid TV – updates rarely, about nothing of any great interest, probably beholden to sponsors, but dude, it’s presented by chicks in french maid outfits! Seriously!

My uncle, who we are staying with, bought a TiVo-like device recently (allegedly so that we can record good stuff for the kids, though that sounds like a ruse to me). Naturally I’m very relieved to have such a device back in my life (though I bought an Elgato DTT stick recently, with a review to follow). This particular unit, from Sagem, has 2 tuners so you can record one program while recording another, and enough storage for about 80 hours of TV (recording the mpeg-2 stream natively, which gives literally broadcast-quality storage). Early days, but if you can’t have a TiVo this looks tolerable.

All good, you might think. Unfortunately it also flagged my increasing age, in a way you may not expect. Responding to my uncle’s initial enthusiasm at pausing live TV I mentioned that Claire is not much of a tech fan, but it takes an event as serious as a trans-Atlantic move to pry her TiVo from her resisting fingers. And then I realized that this is the story I always tell about TiVo. Which is fine, I guess, but I’m aware that telling the same set of stories over and over is something I recognize in people who are older than I consider myself to be.