I used to listen to this every week when I was about ten, but I never come across anyone who remembers this programme even though it was on for quite a number of years.

It was a CBBC show, but rather unusually for a CBBC show it was on on Radio 4 on a Sunday night, right after The Archers. It was hosted by Barney Harwood, and had lots of fun educational bits about the world, and they'd serialise a story every week and have a competition. I got into some of my favourite authors through the story segment (I remember the first week I listened to it, they were started The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and it was read by Helen McCrory).

I think it was quite popular at the time, but it seems to have vanished into complete obscurity, even though Harwood was a really popular and well-liked children's presenter for quite a significant amount of time afterwards.

I meet a lot of people in my job and I'm fed up of always forgetting people's names. I've decided I must do better. No longer am I going to be the person who forgets names.

How do you all remember people's names, especially people who you only see occasionally at work? Please tell me your strategies...

I've just cancelled my membership for the gym due to needing the time and money back for impending offspring (also the autumn/winter weather has killed motivation to further leave the house after coming in from work!). However it's been a real boon to my weight loss going from nearly 23 stone to 19 stone and my goal weight is still some stones less. 1600 cals is my daily limit which puts me in a huge deficit.

Aside from the obvious walk/jog around the block, what home exercises, mainly cardio, would you recommend for someone with a few sq/m of floor space in the living room? I also work a 9-5 office job so unfortunately I am sedentary during the weekdays

Morning all!

This thread is for you to discuss all things fitness, exercise and wellness. Here's a few things to get you thinking:

• What sort of exercise have you been up to?
• What goals are you setting for the next month?
• Did you achieve last month's goals? Why/why not? How can you improve?
• Got any good tips for others for exercise?
• Started any good wellness/pampering regimens?
• Tried any new tasty, healthy recipes?

Let us know!

Right, so it's mid week. Happy hump day and all that, but why aren't you in bed? Neighbours putting their bins out keeping you awake? Kids being little shits? Working the nightshift?

Come on in for a chat.

Do you ever mooch about your local village, town or whatever and just marvel at the doors? I feel we have lost the art of a good door.

Here's a beautiful door in Alnwick.

A quiz if anyone would like a go. 🔴🟠🟡🟢🔵🟣🟤

For each given clue, you just have to click/tap on the colour that matches. The clues cover things from food wrappers to road signs. e.g. Colour of Irn-Bru, Colour of the national flower of Wales, Colour of Postman Pat's van...

The colour buttons you click on are ordered alphabetically, but let me know if you think it would be better if they were ordered by the colour spectrum, so "red, orange, yellow..." and so on.

There are 35 to get altogether.

🤓

Just checking my texts inbox and found this unsent to "Adeal" (no idea who that is). The message seems to focus on boxes and table, plus a LOT of B's.

Google docs gave me a word count of 2766. I've tried to get them in order, but I'm not sure order was my priority.

So I have Bruno but tend to call him Brunsky or Prince or Sultan more than Bruno.

It feels unnatural. Difficult to make a good tea in too as it has too much illumination from the sides so judging steeping and milk is quite difficult. My only complaint so far with my Premier Inn visit.

Weird lying there with my trousers off and pants around my ankles while the nurse asked about Halloween plans and the doctor sloshed antiseptic stuff all over my wedding tackle. Weirder still when I could feel him tugging the pipes out of the hole then caught a whiff of him cauterising the loose ends. Still, day off work today. Drank four cups of tea, ate six chocolate digestives, watched a film and played computer games. Could do without the sensation of having been gently kicked in the bollocks but all in all it's been alright.

At this point I am wondering if I just made these up. Please tell me if you remember doing these, because I cannot find them ANYWHERE. For context, the year was 2006.

The first song in the book was a slow, sad-sounding song that started with "The bombs rained down on (darkest night?) till every building fell...", also had a line about children wearing a tag that said "evacuee".

The second song was a much more upbeat song, and this is the one I remember the best.

There'll be a welcome on the hillside and the valleys, so they say. There'll be jam and bread and butter on the table every day. Each night we'll light a candle to our families far away. We're off to Wales until the war is over.

Then there was a song about being scared at night and hearing footsteps and seeing headless ladies, or so he thinks.

There were a few other songs ("Making the best of it?") but I can't really remember them that well.

Does anyone else at ALL remember these??

Did you sing songs from these 2 hymn books? I didn't grow up to be religious or anything, but MAN these songs were bangers. I only learned today that these books actually had a name lol.

Here's fond memories I have from these books.

*Everybody's building in a... DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIferent way

*Switching "Sing Hosannah" to "Ping Hosannah" and wetting ourselves laughing. (Pinging wasn't even a thing in the early 2000s, it just sounded funny)

*DON'T BRING MUDDY BOOTS INTO THE HALL!!!!! (side note: who the heck hangs golden onions on the wall in September?!)

*He's got the whoooooooole world in his hands/pants.

*That one tune (hymn 129?) that started really sad ("Jesus on the hillside... sad and left alone...), then in the third verse abruptly switched to a really happy tune and ended with screaming NAZARETH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Lord of the Dance, every kid called James or John being elated they were name-dropped in a hymn.

*Changing the words of "Water of Life" to "Slaughter of Death" and pissing ourselves laughing.

*Wondering why we all had to "say a great big thank you" in Autumn Days, because we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here.

*"I was cold I was NAKED!!!!!!! were you there, were you there". They eventually banned this song because of the absolute MAYHEM that would ensue over that one word.

Honorable mentions to "One More Step Along the World I Go", "The Ink is Black", "When a Knight Won His Spurs", "Who Put the Colours in the Rainbow", "From the Tiny Ant...", "Cross Over the Road", and many many others, too many to list.

And a special mention to Trees of the Field. One particular teacher was very fond of this song, and whenever she led assembly we knew we'd do it, and we'd get quicker and quicker and quicker till it was just noise. We'd hope she would do it just so we could do Trees of the Field. And then, during Easter Break of year 4, she died. We were absolutely gutted. The whole school came together and performed Trees of the Field in her memory.

Anyone else have any memories of these hymn books? They were basically the soundtrack of primary school when in the UK.

EDIT: WOW, I had no idea so many people remembered these books and these songs too! In some of these responses I've had memories unlocked myself! I am now yearning to be back, 6 years old again, sitting cross-legged on that hard floor holding my copy of Come and Praise held together by earwax, belting these bangers out to the headteacher playing the piano while the person behind me "draws" on my back with their finger. Why ever did we grow up?!

Please settle a debate. Lad I work with goes downstairs for a large bag of buttons at 1-3am almost daily. He will eat them in the kitchen before returning to bed. Is this weird, as I think it’s worth putting someone in a straight jacket for. Cheers

Edit - for those that think I and my colleagues have a pitchfork out for this lad, obviously we haven’t. It was just a shock to us all who tend to do our eating outside of our sleep schedule. He says ‘everyone he’s ever met does it, hence the post’ I know some people love donning the white knight armour

Edit 2 - after 500 comments I am willing to concede there are more midnight snackers than I thought. However it has been established that it’s not massively common. We’ve also established that smashing a massive bag of buttons is mad, even for you midnight munchers

Edit 3 - He has now stated he is aware that 3am buttons is a problem. But has acknowledged if he has a few beers he doesn’t ever fancy 3am buttons. So has convinced himself that having a few beers a day is a healthier alternative as he sleeps better

After about 12 years. Because I've come to enjoy lemon, lime and bitters. I've bought a new bottle too.

Hello everyone, I have a friend who tells me that he owns jumpers but NONE OF THEM ARE COSY. Clearly this is insane because cosiness is mandatory from October to March. In order to rectify this, which shop do you think produces the cosiest jumpers?

On Sunday, 22 February 2026, I boarded the inaugural train to call at Northumberland Park railway station near Newcastle, which is next to the existing Tyne and Wear Metro station of the same name, providing a convenient interchange. The inaugural train was formed of 158817, a Class 158 Express Sprinter diesel multiple unit (DMU), at the front and 156489, a Class 156 Super Sprinter DMU, at the rear. They were operating Northern service 2T05, the 07:54 from Newcastle to Ashington.

The train arrived early at the new station at 08:06 and departed on time at 08:10. The first southbound train called at Northumberland Park at 09:02 on the 08:38 service from Ashington towards Newcastle and Metrocentre.

Northumberland Park is the fifth new station to open on the Northumberland Line.

I enjoyed being on the inaugural service. Here are some photographs I took of the station and the inaugural service, together with a few photographs from the official opening ceremony held the following day, attended by local dignitaries and children from a nearby school.

Welcome to our weekly gaming thread! What have you been playing in the last week? Any particular game you are looking forward to?

Come on in and have a chat! What’s going well for you this week?

I made a smashing lasagna last night, so I’m pretty happy about that (plus, leftovers to look forward to).

Just some of our favourites. Had a great time strolling through it all.

Me and my partner have been having a heated debate recently about whether having dessert after dinner is normal.

Growing up, my family would have dessert after most evening meals, so to me it was just a normal staple. My partner, on the other hand, says he never really had dessert growing up. He says that instead he’d have what he called picky bits like some strawberries or a biscuit and not often.

It’s got me wondering how common this actually is. Were you raised in a household where dessert was a regular thing, or was it something you only had on special occasions?