BBC Radio 4 Extra

Alistair Beckett-King is a self-described comedian, animator, gentleman thief.

Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year 2017 Alistair has appeared on the BBC's Mock the Week, BBC Radio 4 Extra, and has performed his stand-up at Glastonbury, the Edinburgh Fringe, and several international comedy festivals.

He's currently on tour, and you can see his truly brilliant content on YouTube.

It really is fantastic.

If you're intrigued by that, go listen to the stories and then come back and see what we think of it.

So anyway, Human Resources was the sixth and final story in the first series of the Eighth Doctor Adventures produced by Big Finish Productions and BBC7, the radio station.

It featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Sheridan Smith as Lucy Miller.

Woo! Huge fan of Sheridan and of Lucy Miller.

I'd heard like Blood of the Daleks, Max Warp.

Grand Theft Cosmos, just really random one-offs, basically, and thought, like, oh, I'd love to hear a little bit more.

The reason for that being, by the way, because it was on BBC7, the radio station, so if you were able to catch it on, like, a Sunday night, I think, a random time when I was in, I was like, oh, cool, Doctor Who, there.

And I do think this era is the most similar to the kind of the 2005 revival.

But yeah, so the- they all knew it from that.

I knew it from, uh, what was BBC Radio 7 at that point, where, like, basically I couldn't sleep as a teenager.

Terrible at sleeping, so I just listened to the comedy stuff all through the night, which would be-

You had a lot of energy.

definitely an influence, too.

Probably the biggest show influence was Planet B, a series from BBC Radio 7 that deals with an uploaded consciousness going through a series of simulated game worlds.

Do you know where you are, sir?

No.

And I didn't know who he was, but, um, I think he contacted me and said, "Oh, my dad's, my dad's just died, but we found, we found that the only interview with him ever done, and it's the only recording we've got of his voice, and it's really special to us at this time." So, and, and tr- and Dylan got in touch with me today, uh, as well, just to say, you know, it was, it was the day, and they were, they were thinking about him.

And he hadn't listened to the Absent Friends that I'd done for Radio 4 Extra, and, uh, uh, uh, and, and it's off iPlayer now, but I was able to send him a copy, so that's fine.

And I think there's a sort of gritty urgency about...

He's only in this one episode, Murray, as the lorry driver, but, uh, but, you know, it's a shame he doesn't have a name 'cause he's, he's a sort of key element of this episode.

They weren't about making spin-off audio productions or trying to bring back that kind of the golden age of radio, which was largely dead as America.

America doesn't have the equivalent of Radio 4 or Radio 4 Extra.

So it is strange.

They look like they're doing it at the same time, Big Finish and Alien Voices.

I mean, if I wake up in the middle of the night, I will use the radio.

I'll use Radio 4 Extra, and I'll catch up on a episode of In Our Time or, or whatever, because it's suitably engaging to take my mind off of things, but not too engaging to increase alertness.

So I, you know, after five minutes of 4th century Chinese porcelain-

[laughs]

And what he describes from the diaries and the documents of doctors of the day is what's called a biphasic sleep pattern, which is people go to sleep, they wake up, they go back to sleep again, or polyphasic, which is repeated, uh, wake up and, and, and go back to sleep again.

And in fact, most of us will wake up from rapid eye movement sleep several times during the night, but we never become consciously aware of it, and we go back to sleep again.

But those of us who experience biphasic sleep, who wake up and become conscious of it, then need to say, "This is perfectly normal." I mean, if I stay relaxed, if I listen to my bit of Radio 4 Extra or whatever it is, I will get back to sleep.

And the problem is people don't know that that's what's normal.

Rise up, follow me I will lead you home Home

Well, every day this week, Prayer for the Day on Radio 4 and the Daily Service on Radio 4 Extra are marking the 9-11 anniversary with some of the faith leaders we just heard from there and others across New York.

Well, that's it for this week's Sunday.

Lots of you have actually got in touch about the use of multi-faith prayer rooms and we'll be exploring that much more next week.