Most of last week I spent lying on my couch, coughing, spluttering and feeling sorry for myself. I was sick. And sick of listening to Nigel Farage on every single BBC radio station (it wouldn’t have surprised me if he’d had turned up with a DJ set on 6 Music given his ubiquity). So, I retreated into comfort listening, which mostly meant podcasts.

In between hacking and coughing and gargling barbed wire, I dug into the back catalogue of Word in Your Ear (Smash Hits, Q and The Word alumni David Hepworth and Mark Ellen’s music podcast), and found myself listening to a geeky, sweet and rather funny podcast about early Marvel comics (Steve and Matt Bird’s Marvel Reread Club), which spent inordinate time discussing who did the best inking over artist Jack Kirby’s pencils (answer, anyone but Vince Colletta; there will be men of a certain age now swooning in Proustian reveries at the mention of his name).

Yes, I did listen to a bit of radio. Even a spot of Radio 4 comedy. Brave, I know, but I do like policeman turned comedian Alfie Moore’s It’s a Fair Cop (currently broadcast on Monday nights in the 6.30pm slot).

But nothing serious. Nothing with any gravitas. Or nearly nothing. I did stumble on the latest series on Radio 4’s The History Podcast. Well, I say, stumble but, actually, I was given a nudge by its producer.

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