Well on the road to Hellville

Mark Wareham
Friday 17 February 1995 00:02 GMT
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"The Guildford Four are free. When will the rest of Guildford be free? More importantly, when will the United Kingdom 52 million be free?" Alan Parker - Urban Warrior, campaigning crusader for the oppressed majority (that's you), storms the airwaves tonight (9pm R1) with his third radio series, 59 Minutes of Truth.

The last series won for Parker's creator, comedian Simon Munnery, the 1994 Sony Gold Award for Best Radio Comedy with his uniquely radical, not to say downright amateurish, broadcasting style. Hitherto uncharted comic territory - Most Left-Wing Person in the Pub Competition and scathingly ironic interviews with the likes of Billy Bragg - confirmed Parker as a kind of Wolfie Smith for the Nineties, a DIY anarchist, post-punk loser and no-hope revolutionary for whom popular music began (and ended) with Sham 69 in 1978.

The new show, extended from 29 to 59 minutes without suffering unduly, is a cannily choreographed shambles as Parker struggles to introduce a Clash track or takes to the streets to scour desperately for non-existent victims of the "bourgeois- fascist-middle-class-nazi-fascist" conspiracy. All this and the constant dropping of pub philosopher's maxims - "The thing about mates is... you can only rely on them if you've got any." Oh, and listen out for his new improved version of The Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds".

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