Discontent Provider

Episode 64: To Inanity And Beyond

Not quite the thrilling and interactive live-streamed audio phenomenon for which many were hoping - but for all that, the chaps have some thoughts on the King's Speech to share with anyone inclined to emerge from their festive excesses long enough to listen to them. Would Buzz Lightyear be a better King than the one with which we're lumbered? Almost certainly. Come to think of it; even the little aliens from the Claw Machine could probably do more to uplift and inspire a Nation.

Episode 63: Christmas (not all that) Special

On their last visit to the Happy Place before the Big Day, Foxy and Arkham consider the decline in festive merriment and conclude that it's about as surprising as that present you found in a cupboard, opened, then carefully re-wrapped and received with feigned astonishment when you were a tiny tot. The Silver Fox also plunders his Santa's Sack of Song to unearth a Yuletide number from the past. He hopes you dig it - because he's going to use it every year from now on. It'll be as established a Christmas tradition as family arguments and chronic disappointment...

Episode 62: Interview With Two Vampires

With one of the chaps trying to pretend they're not bitterly regretting their seasonal sartorial choices, podcasting's premier platonic power-pairing parse the public's politically-polarised post-mortem of THAT interview - and consider the possibility of doing something unprecedented in Discontent Provider's less-than-illustrious history. To have your say, email discontentprovider@gmx.co.uk OR post to @FoxyAndArkham on whatever that fucking imbecile is calling his fast-ebbing Last Stand for the freedom of crypto-Nazi weirdos.

Episode 61: The Good Old Days of Dishonesty

Foxy and Arkham have been handed the murkier end of the stick by both the digital world and the elements this week - but for all that, they still salute their adversaries' open and frank hostility; it is, after all, so much easier to deal with than (to pick an example wholly at random) a political class who see it as pretty much comme il faut to lie to the faces of the parents of murdered children - if not positively de rigeuer.That's right: A-Level French, bitches! 

Episode 60: Losing Rights and Perusing A Knight

As Democracy crumbles away like a frail frost-rimed cobweb on a Winter morn, the chaps in the Happy Place consider the potential of a possible (probable?) Prime Minister. In all honesty, it's not a cheery listen - but what is in these sadly debased times? To bring the week to an end, The Silver Fox attempts to get medieval on your ass with an olde-worlde ballad. Admittedly, those minstrels never had harmoincae - but he does use the word "prithee"; so it counts. Barely.

Episode 59: Sheiks, Lies, and Videotape (Alright; the cat is a Sultan - but we stand by our pun, damn you)

A new week begins, as does a New Era of Honesty in the Happy Place. It's not as though Foxy and Arkham were the most fearful fibbers or anything - but dishonest dealings at the COP-28 bunfight have rather borne upon them the importance of scrupulous truthfulness.

Episode 58: Even the damned UNIVERSE is cheating now!

The normally hard-headed realists of the Happy Place find themselves pondering cosmic affairs as one of the most sacred Laws of Nature goes for a Burton. For all that, however, they manage to fit in some speculations on the coverage of a globally-significant figure who should never really have been anything more than a character Ronnie Barker invented for a "Two Ronnies" sketch.

Episode 57: To Summit All Up

A new week yawns wide open before us all - and, if the auguries are to be believed, the frail spirit of Hope might well be about to make a timid, faltering appearance. The chaps in the Happy Place would certainly like to think so - but they (and everybody else) have been fooled before... Also, Foxy and Arkham consider the role of the Monarchy in the international realm of rattling a cupful of coins and asking it anyone has any spare change - and are left indifferent by the spectacle of to of Britain's Worst People slinging mud at one another.

Episode 56: Vworp the News - We’re doing a Doctor Who Special!

With the news being so full of misery and full-on loathsomeness that nobody wants to touch the damned thing with a six-foot Staff of Rassilon, can Foxy and Arkham be blamed for taking the opportunity afforded by a TV classic's 60th Anniversary to ponder matters more edifying? Probably - but they've done it anyway. 

Episode 55: Back To Basics

This week finds Foxy and Arkham reflecting on the importance of narrative convention, sticking to the script, and the importance of not overwhelming the viewers with too many Big Doings in one go. It's all rather meta, really - but why not? They know that their listeners are a sophisticated crowd. Mind you; attempting a comparison between the Foreign Secretary and the Tenth Doctor might be something of a stretch even for them...