Steve Allen - The Whole Show

Steve Allen occupies LBC's pre-dawn shift, Sunday through Friday from 4am, and the podcast edition strips out the news bulletins, travel and breaks so only the talking remains. What's left is a long, loose monologue about Britain. Politics is the spine of it. When a prime minister resigns after a matter of days, Allen opens by admitting he'd called it wrong — he'd said she would stick around, because, as he puts it, he's one of those people who believes what he's told. Ian Dale had predicted the resignation. Allen said Dale was wrong. Dale wasn't. That willingness to be publicly incorrect is part of the appeal. He imagines the awkwardness of the return trip to Prince Charles. He notes that the would-be candidates are lining up, that everyone's saying it's Boris versus Rishi, and that nothing will actually happen over the weekend because it's the weekend and you have to find people. He watches Question Time and relays what the panel said, including the Labour minister who'd been booked six weeks earlier and could hardly believe her timing. The register shifts for national moments. On the morning of a tribute to the Queen, the show ran shorter to make room for the breakfast programme, and Allen spent his time on where people could go and where they could leave flowers. He called the days after her death completely mad yet chaotically organised into something regimented, and admired it. He suggested watching the television pictures with the sound off while listening to LBC for the commentary. He likened the royal family's advance planning — every detail down to the minutiae, run past her for approval — to pharaohs watching their tombs being built. He said he thinks Charles will be a very good king. Texts and emails from listeners are thanked; a poem was read that morning. The show is unmistakably British in its references and its concerns, aimed at people who are up early and want company rather than a briefing. Allen doesn't perform neutrality. He calls things weak and spineless when he thinks they are, and he tells listeners when he genuinely has no idea what happens next. Between episodes, Global Player trailers surface for stablemate shows, including John Sweeney introducing Sweeney Talks. The daily rhythm matters more than any single episode — this is a show for regulars, built on the assumption that the same voice will be there again tomorrow morning, working through whatever has happened since.