QWightLike. A Podcast.

Summer’s heat recedes, its work done, as waves of Atlantic fury claim our attention for the next 6 months or so, whilst Tim and Rory claim your attention for the next hour or so with topical chat offering shelter from the world’s wicked ways - mostly. Back from a slightly extended summer break, we continue as the Isle of Wight’s longest, continually running podcast, jogging into the autumnal cool, and kicking through slowly accumulating piles of crispy leaves. The crispy tones of co-host Rory, rustle into your ears as a 4-week cold which has steeped in his lungs throughout that time provides you with the male answer to Mariella Frostrup’s throaty patter. In reality we talk about our respective holidays on other islands poised just off Africa and at the far end of the Mediterranean, just off Libya. Tour operator faves, holiday car hire, two-centre weddings, and holiday bugs appear on our holiday postcards. We go deep, briefly, evaluating the price of everything, from fuel driven by market sentiment, to the impact of misplaced protest on the brave volunteers of our heroic RNLI volunteers. More on our support for the RNLI to come in the future, but we stand by them, the management, staff, and volunteers, and everything that our society asks of them, and we totally reject any and all criticism of them from the ne’erdowells. Back in our happy podcast land, we finish up with some stuff around one of our favourite subjects, that being bread, and baking more widely. Recommendations of some island bakeries. A segue from bread through the dramatic arts leads us to the re-launch of Play for Today on Channel 5 (in the UK) through to some book recommendations from Adrian Mole ℅ Sue Townsend to DCI Tony McLean ℅ James Oswald. We go out on a fling with an advertisement for the next West Wight Sports and Community Centre daytime disco on Saturday 24th October at 3pm-7pm. Listen to the pod for more details and for your homework set by Tim. Thanks for listening, folks, we look forward to you hearing us next time, soon. Tim and Rory

Phew, what a scorcher. Summer 2026 has broken temperature and drought records in much the same way that Tim and Rory broke the tertiary cadence of the island’s longest running* chat podcast (*caveats apply). Our last outing, for the ninth episode, was in late July. A lot has been happening in our busy social, domestic, and pleasurable pastimes as well as our wider family lives during this period, all of which has conspired to limit any opportunity we had to gather, sit, and chat into microphones for your delectation and delight. Our apologies, but we’re back, (for being away and not for coming back!) and we left more out in this episode, than we squeezed in, but that simply means we’ve got lots to circle back to in the coming weeks and months. So, what do we have for you this time, I hear the maddening cloud acclaiming in the street below!? Well, we have weddings, fringes, football, vinyl, and all manner of annoyances, not that the former are annoyances because that’s an Oxford comma separating a discrete list of topical items and we get annoyed separately. We annoyed the great and the good of Spotify owing to a licensed material mishap in episode 7, so we now self-identify as the Bad Boys of Isle of Wight Podcasting. Best you listen to the crackling chat to find out the details, rather than read about it, but do let us know if we should be issuing each episode on vinyl, so that you can experience the full warmth and lustre of our dulcet tones. See you hearing us next time, as we scratch our heads over diaries to agree upon a date for the 11th outing this year of your dynamic duo but it should be the first weekend of October. Thanks for listening Rory and Tim

An accidentally extended episode through no overt production choice, rather the vast amount of chat we had to chip away at to sculpt yet another hour, or so, of topical conversation to keep you informed, awake, or send you off to your slumber, with a nice warm glow. This packed offering, covers movie likes and dislikes and a family wedding in the auspicious surroundings of an East London town hall with stunning reception in a well-chosen Italian restaurant taken over for an evening of fun, friends, and family. Where else can we transition through these subjects, never skipping a beat, and ending up telling tales of animated Italian porcine flying aces, and ending the first part with a tale of unintended derring do? Well, derring actually did, so tune in to find out what happened when derring added a new … ingredient to the mix. The summer of 2026, and its,so far three heatwaves, would not be complete without a discussion of the closing stages of the 2026 Football World Cup with all the drama that ensued, on and off field. Significantly we spend time considering the motivation and fear that high-profile international sports competitions force upon participants. The Corinthian ethos of sports when it meets nationalistic zeal, expectation, and politics, comes under scrutiny. We wrap up with an extensive discussion on Tim’s experience, with his wife Ella, of their first cruise, enjoying a week onboard P&O’s Iona visiting the Norwegian fjords, and discuss the many pros of a holiday at sea, and on land, where your bed, dining, and entertainment experiences travel with you. Again, tune-in to find out the verdict. Good experience, or not? Will they book again, or not? Closing out with some updates on as yet, unlaunched initiatives, and further discussion around the penetration, and labelling of artificial intelligence (AI) output, we demonstrate our ability to continue to pull at threads of earlier conversations. Enjoy the next few weeks, and be careful out there. Thanks for listening, Rory and Tim

Welcome to another full, chat-filled, tank of talk and titbits to fuel your day. We’re dissecting the 2026 FIFA World Cup, so far (up to the Round of 32), particularly as it affects Scots and English supporters. Even if the footie you like is not this kind, we hope you’ll take kindly to our gentle meander around the sport that has grown men still kicking an inflated sphere around a piece of grass as their mothers’ frantically try and get them in for their tea. In other news, we take a squint from behind the sofa at events in Westminster, the hub of UK politics, as well as a side eye towards what’s been going on up in Scotland with a conviction. By that we don’t mean earnestly, just that someone has been sentenced for theft of funds from the Scottish National Party and we look at the context of that, and what comes next. Finally, we dissect, the views that led to Kier Starmer’s resignation and his now prolonged departure, as the media salivates at the opportunity to manage and, in many cases, manipulate the political agenda. Seasoned with talk of the recent heatwave(s), the return to our streets (and off road routes) of the boudain noir (the Black Pudding), the affectionate nickname for Tim’s pedal-powered chariot, as well as a dip into the experiences of the Isle of Wight Festival for 2026 whether in person or via a TV from the cosy comfort of your own home. Spend an hour with us as we gently twist our tongues around the aforementioned and a little bit more besides to keep you going whilst you go about your much more important business. Thanks for listening and supporting our little podcast. You’ll hear us next time, too. Tim and Rory

A hearty greeting from Tim and Rory, to our half-a-dozenth episode of our (may the) fourth series, and, as always we have crammed in the usual topical chat and our personal musings on what we’ve both been up to since our last outing. A sprinkler of topics douses you with observations on local elections, on fund raising discos, on birthdays, and, amongst so much more, on the joy of taking delivery of a new car. With recent island discussions and news roundly focussing upon a perfect storm of road closures to facilitate work on critical infrastructure improvements, we ride our torrent of chat rapidly around a whirlpool of stories, from engaging with MPs, to parental pride. The steam whistle of joy takes us from the island to a family-run restaurant in Inverness, almost as far away as you can navigate from us on the north island, via the Caledonian Sleeper. We’re big fans of weaving public transport together with enjoyable experiences whether on or off the island. There’s much more to come in future episodes. There is a distinct whiff of fete in the air as we discuss Gardening Galore in Rookley held on Sunday 3rd May 2026 and preview Riverfest taking place in Newport on Saturday 9th May 2026. Something for everyone as the sun continues to kiss our brows with warm days as we canter towards mid-summer and the plethora of things to do here on the island. It means a lot, that you continue to listen, and as we see our regular listener count continue its inexorable rise towards total podcast domination on this island. If we're not there already, we're really close. So, thanks for listening. Tim and Rory