'Green' village gets backing from Brian Eno

Plans for a pioneering green2 village in County Durham have been given the seal of approval by a music legend.

Brian Eno, one of the founder members of 70s glam and art rock hitmakers Roxy Music, and now a respected newspaper columnist and record producer, spoke out in favour of the proposed eco-village at Eastgate, Weardale.

Speaking last week on The Museum of Curiosity show on BBC Radio 4, hosted by John Lloyd and comedian Sean Lock, he was invited to 'donate a fascinating exhibit to a vast imaginary museum'.

He put forward an Icelandic volcano as a means of energy production, and discussed potential geothermal energy production in the UK, naming Southampton and Eastgate as the country's key geothermal schemes.

Radio review: The Museum of Curiosity

The Museum of Curiosity (Radio 4) was a disappointingly lopsided listen. Before the contributors - Brian Eno, Chris Donald and Dave Gorman - gave their items to the museum, the chat was funny and flowing, and quite endearingly quirky.

Where else can you find the Battle of Waterloo, a pineapple and the Big Bang but in this glorious establishment? The museum is open for its second batch of exhibits, starting with Dave Gorman who wants to put in "the urge to press the red buttons that you know you shouldn't press". I'll let you find out what silly and sensible lots Brian Eno and Chris Donald want to assign. QI with even more jokes. Made me bark with laughter.

An English malady

Even better I've at last found myself laughing at a Radio 4 comedy programme, transforming that 6.30 graveyard slot, which in recent years has become synonymous with smutty jokes and banal innuendo, into something a little different. The Museum of Curiosity is a bit like Paul Merton's Room 101, but without the ego.

The Museum of Curiosity, Radio 4

Doesn't a little bit of Brian Blessed go an awfully long way? I thought of this whenever he opened his mouth on Radio 4's new, well, I suppose strictly speaking it's comedy, because it goes out at 6.30, but 'Radio 4's new comedy show' doesn't quite seem to fit. How does one describe The Museum of Curiosity? It's got guests; it has two hosts, Bill Bailey and John Lloyd, and occasionally, laughs.

Apart from Brian Blessed, of whom I have now had a sufficiency that will last me the rest of my days, the show more or less worked. Eccentricity is fine by me, as long as it's genuinely amusing. And hearing about Sean Lock's time as a goatherder - or Richard Fortey's experience of being stung by a giant Chinese hornet, or his story about the womanising museum curator who filed snippings of pubic hair from every woman he slept with - help pass the time pleasantly enough.