Oh, this is fun! After the fiasco on Sunday's radio show when the phone-in contributors (namely and ) were rendered virtually inaudible by antiquated radio technology, I've been fiddling about with Skype and various audio tools to work out a method of pre-recording the calls.

And finally, I've got it sussed. It involves me making telephone calls by talking into a microphone with a big pair of headphones on, but it's totally handsfree, allowing me to indulge in shadowpuppetry or whatever at the same time.

I've also set up a neat thing whereby I can instantly put a backing track behind the calls, with the volume riding up and down in all the right places. Obviously to test this out, I had to have a couple of dry runs. And so, for your listening pleasure, enjoy me explaining to Friends Provident, my pension company, that I'm briefly suspending my contributions owing to poverty – and all to the soundtrack of “Dance Yourself Dizzy”, by Liquid Gold.

I might do some more of these.

[Edit: obviously, if I spent more time looking for work and less time messing about with disco voiceovers, I wouldn't have had to make the call. i appreciate this.]