Dan complained the other day that we’ve been listening to too much American radio, which reminded me we haven’t heard This American Life for years.

I remember This American Life being warm and witty and homely. Maybe I’m misremembering. We’re listening to episode 362: Got You Pegged and it’s not that special.

A museum assistant gets talking to a 21 year old graduate and thinks she’s a mentally disabled teenager who can’t read. The misunderstanding goes on and on - he’s reading out loud to her, she doesn’t know how to explain he’s got the wrong idea. The story builds up for a full eight minutes and then… they clear up the misunderstanding and apologise.

It feels quite an anti-climax. Eight minutes and they don’t even turn out to be long lost cousins?

The item about the Holocaust survivor is the last straw for Dan. “Of course, she’s dead now,” says the man on the radio. “Every single item in this programme has been bloody dreary!” Dan grumbles and stomps into the other room to listen to Radio 4. I think I might join him.