The Sound of Sunday on HRB

The end of the Paralympics last week and the parade through London on Monday probably marked the end of summer.  It's been a fantastic year so far which is being celebrated all this weekend with Chris Bounds on HRB for 2012 minutes non-stop!  He'll be remembering some of those great moments that we have all witnessed over the last few months along with listeners' memories of the year.

This week's Sound of Sunday will follow all of that – at 5.32pm on Sunday afternoon with a 90 minute show that will include the Quiet Quarter of an Hour, Live Wire talking to Rolf Haris and the final episode of the currect Superman 1940s Style story – postponed from last week due to a slight technical issue!

As one season ends, another starts of course, and the return of Strictly Come Dancing means that autumn is definitely here.  When Strictly ends it will be Christmas.  Doctor Who will soon end the first part of its new series and Merlin will be back on Saturday nights and Casualty and Match of the Day have already of course returned.  Attention turning then from London 2012 to the competition of Saturday nights in the ballroom (well TC1 at Television Centre anyway) and no doubt more drama.  Long may it continue.

The Sound of Sunday, HRB this Sunday at 5.32pm

A few months ago I said on air how flat it is going to feel once the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games comes to an end.  At the time, it felt like a long way off but this Sunday that time will come as the closing of the Paralympics takes place.

I spent a fantastic 2 days at Olympic Park this week and got more idea of the sheer scale of the place.  In 1994, someone stood on that site when it was a wasteland with a vision, and boy has that vision come to spectacular reality in 2012.

The park will stay of course, opening to the public next July although I suspect it will look very different.  It's all about the legacy and the park will be at the centre of that.

The athletes of Team GB get another chance to shine as they parade through London on Monday afternoon and I should think a good number of them will gather at the Excel in London for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in December.

And for those of us who went to the events of summer 2012, the memories will live on for a good deal longer.

We'll celebrate Team GB's success on the show this Sunday – Sunday 1.30pm.

This Sunday we're back to normal with a bank holiday weekend show that is more packed than the Team GB sycle team's medal cabinet.

We have lots of local Olympic athletes and one of them will be joining us on Sunday.  Chris Mears took part in the diving at London 2012 but it was pretty special for him to be there at all – find out why on Sunday.

Also on Sunday, in the first of what may become a regular feature, we talk about scams with Hampshire Trading Standards.  I've always had an interest in exposing cons and scams – I used to write about them many years ago.  We'll be talking about the sorts of scams that people are being caught out by at the moment and what to look out for plus a scheme that hopefully makes it easier to work out who you can trust.

We'll keep an eye on the football and there'll be all the usual features too.

Join us live from 1.30 on Sunday afternoon.

This week is one of those Sundays where there is al alternative on offer at HRB and this week it's the legendary US DJ Wolfman Jack. 

HRB has 9 of his shows that have been remastered and re-released and they have been used at various times over the last few months. 

So you get the Wolfman from 1 and then a bite-size Sound of Sunday from 3 which includes a Frequency Cast special interview with Dave Prowse.  You will know Dave even if you don;t know the name.  He was the Green Cross Code man and also inside the costume of Darth Vader in the Star Wars films.

So join us from 3 – 4.  Superman is there as well as the Quiet Quarter of an Hour.

It hardly seems like two weeks since Mr Bean helped with Chariots of Fire and Her Majesty parachuted into Olympic Park, but believe it or not London 2012 will be drawing to a close this weekend.

Yes there were some teething problems and the media seemingly couldn't wait to jump on every little issue that needed to be sorted, but when it all started and especially when Team GB started winning, that all seemed to have been forgotten and to me it seems that London has delivered an Olympic Games the whole country can be proud of.

I was in Hyde Park for the Women's Triathlon where the crowd was huge and the atmosphere was amazing.  From what I've heard, it was the same at all the events and venues.  I was also at Wembley where despite the fact that the match was apparently sold out, there was a huge number of empty seats, and I think that is the one issue that has stuck around right through the games.  Previous games have had problems with empty seats though, maybe Rio can learn from 2016. 

Having said that, I didn't see any empty seats in the main stadium.

So as we come to the end of the games, all of us who have been watching from the start have some great memories of the last two weeks.  Don't forget though, the Paralympics are still to come and should offer just as much excitement and drama.  Get ready for London 2012 part 2!

THE SOUND OF SUNDAY this Sunday 1.30 – 4pm.

We've been waiting for this fortnight for 7 years, and they are going alarmingly quickly!  If things don't feel totally flat after the closing ceremony on 12 August, they certainly will in September when the Paralympics come to a close.

It was great to go to London last weekend and sample the atmosphere of London 2012.  So many thousands of people out and about making the most of the summer sunshine and being part of the event.  After a few hours of that or even watching the action on TV, I defy anyone to say they haven't got in the Olympic mood!

I'll be going to London twice in the next few days, Hyde Park for the Triathlon on Saturday (it's free to watch most of it), and to Wembley for the semi final of the football on Monday – the match which may well feature Team GB.

On the show on Sunday we will of course feature all the news from London 2012, although the BBC;s outstanding coverage is tough competition. 

All the regular fun and features though live from 1.30 right after Paul le Feuvre is live from Switzerland for an hour from 12.30pm.

In the week when contracts were exchanged for the sale of the best known TV centre in the world, our guest this week is former BBC video tape editor Chris Booth.

I met him recently at the Froyle Fete and he told me the real reason why they turned the fountain off as well as reminiscing over the time he spent working at BBC Television Centre amongst the likes of Sir Jimmy Saville when he worked on Jim'll Fix It.

It was a fascinating chat about a truly fascinating building – hear it this Sunday afternoon as well as the rest of our usual fun and features as we come to the end of Memory Makers – The Olympic Years by remembering 2008.

We're live this Sunday from 1.30 – 4pm.  HRB Out and About at the Froyle Fete is on Friday 27 July at 5pm. 

It hardly seems a week since 16 million people sat down to watch Andy Murray try to win Wimbledon, as well as the rain affected British Grand Prix.  With both of those out of the way, the excitement ahead of the Olympics has climbed up a notch with 2 weeks to go. 

That excitement came to Basingstoke during the week with thousands of people lining the route through the town as the Olympic torch came through on its way to London.  Part of the route was used the last time the torch came to Basingstoke, in 1948.

HRB was there recording the event of course, and a third chance to hear this historic event will be on Sunday right after this week's show at 4pm. 

The Sound of Sunday itself returns after an unscheduled break last weekend with all the regular features live from 1.30. 

A couple of weeks ago, there was talk of moving Wimbledon to be one week later.  Surely if this means that the Mens final avoids the British Grand Prix, this would be a good idea – especially if Andy Murray getting to the final becomes a more regular occurrence!

Both events happen on Sunday this weekend.  We're taking a week off.  Instead you can hear what happened at the 2010 Froyle Fete ahead of the 2012 event next weekend. 

The Sound of Sunday returns live at 1.30 next Sunday.

After two weeks of being air for slightly shorter than normal and then slightly later than normal, it’s back to the regular 1.30 – 4 time this Sunday.

We’ve got all the regular features including the continuing Memory Makers Olympic Years feature, which will be turned into a special show later this month for the Olympics.

The 1940s episodes of Superman returned to the show last weekend.  We’ve played over 100 episodes in the series over the last two years, but with over 1100 in tota, there’s some way to go yet.  Superman still carries on today of course although the character is very different.  In the 1940s series, he was a bit of a secretive character, with Clark Kent not wanting people to know much about him, quite different to the story today.  How the character has moved on over the years will be the subject of another HRB special later in the year.