Danny Baker’s Great Album Showdown

Richard Ansett

Series one, episode one
Equal parts analysis and celebration, this series explores the ailing majesty of the album via a simple format: Danny Baker and a trio of other interested parties chatting, much as you might in a pub. Later in the week, Danny will be running the rule over pop and R&B but tonight, we begin with rock. And, with his anti-establishment credentials and denim-clad animal charisma, who says ‘rock’ quite like alpha male panellist Jeremy Clarkson? Oh dear. Do us a favour, Auntie. Save the car coats and climate-change scepticism for primetime Sunday nights, eh?

Still, it soon becomes clear that the trio of panellists (also featured: Stephen Street and Kate Mossman) are to Baker what The Fall are to Mark E Smith – little more than a delivery mechanism for his personal vision. This could be tiresome but, happily, Baker’s great company: funny, opinionated and unashamedly earnest about the value and significance of the long playing record.