All this Vision
This was originally published in my Prime Lenses Newsletter. You can sign-up for a weekly update to your inbox here.
A still from Radio Ga Ga by Queen
In January 1984 a four year old Iain listened to Queen sing about the death of radio in the face of the unstoppable rise of television and moving wallpaper like MTV. The song Radio Ga Ga is a love letter to radio, almost mourning its perceived passing in the face of “all this vision” but holding out hope for a “finest hour” yet to come. Ironically the song’s own music video would go on to be nominated for Best Art Direction at the MTV awards later that year.
Now, at the end of 2025, I think that the rise of the podcast is as close to that finest hour as we’ve come in my lifetime. More audio is being listened to by more people than at any time in history and the democratisation of production using free tools like Audacity and the internet as a means of distribution has broadcast vastly more voices. With that on my mind, a splendid article in The Guardian this weekend summed up a lot of my feelings on podcasts and radio. In short, the absence of images isn’t a bug, it’s a feature, and all these podcasts rushing to add a visual component or born with a foot in both camps are, I think, missing the point. My beloved Kermode and Mayo have succumbed to this trend recently, they’ve even launched a Patreon. 30 years into their collaboration, they’re now selling easily customisable websites and merch like the rest of us :D
I had grand designs when the podcast idea came to me. It would be remote, video but with an audio feed. I’d need lights and a good background to say “sponsored by Squarespace” in front of. I set up OBS Studio to be able to record with live transitions to make post production lighter. I did local tests with multiple live cameras, it all seemed to work great. Then, time came to record episode one with Danny Bligh. Danny’s a mate so was very patient with the inevitable issues I ran into. We wound up starting 10 minutes late and worse still, all my local systems failed and I had to use a Google Meet link. Then his video wouldn’t work! Knowing it’s more important to start than be perfect, the first episode was audio only, but when I listened back to it while editing it I realised that this was better, less was more and that in my initial plan there were too many ingredients.
““Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.””
The media that had inspired me to start this show as well as earlier attempts at podcasting were the radio shows I grew up loving, from Hancock’s Half Hour to Just a Minute and The News Quiz. All the podcasts I consume, I’ve done my 10,000 hours and then some, are audio first. Like Freddy, I love radio, racing home from school growing up to listen to Steve Wright in the afternoon and the short lived but brilliant BBC Radio adaptation of Spider-Man, which now that I look, featured music by Brian May! I realised that this was what I wanted to make.
From then on there was no turning back. I’ve spoken about it on the mic, how friends who make YouTube videos have suggested video to me, but the thing is, I don’t want to make Prime Lenses a dual medium show. In a recent episode of Version History about The Power Glove The Verge fell into this trap. When you have an object in studio being passed between guests it’s too easy to leave an audio listener behind and makes for really poor radio. I do understand the need to promote your show in a doomscroll-first social landscape, but all these clips also end up looking the same. Two camera setups, mics, a table in the middle. If I’m going to make something visual it has to be something I believe in. I take great pride in being in people’s ears, I know it’s a privilege to come with you on your commute, to the gym, walking the dog and doing the washing up.
So that’s the plan going into 2026. I am going to lean even harder into audio. I am attempting to kickstart some really unique opportunities which I think will sound brilliant and I’ll hopefully send those to your ears in the next 12 months.
In the meantime, I thank you all for listening, subscribing and supporting this project. I’m so fortunate to have found this work and can’t wait to bring you more of it.