As promised, the latest Backstage podcast features Richard Thompson. He's taking his "1,000 Years Of Popular Music" tour around England in January and February. He begins in Baskingstoke on January 14th and finishes in Oxford on February 7th. Full details of the tour, in which he is accompanied by Debra Dobkin and Judith Owen, can be found here.

I spoke to him at his Hampstead home just before Christmas. Subjects covered off include: Gilbert and Sullivan, jazz players on Connie Francis records, whether Shakespeare was Shakespeare, the travails of Britney Spears and why nothing will ever again sound the way it once sounded at the fairground.

You can subscribe to the podcast here or stream it below.

We had the Christmas party yesterday in a room above an Islington pub.

As is traditional at this time of the year everybody picked somebody's name out of Secret Santa's hat and then swapped the name they were given for somebody else's and then went shopping for satirical gifts. You can hear how these were received below.

This podcast was recorded in the short window of opportunity before the festive drink numbed gums, old scores were settled and Mark Ellen ended up crying in the toilets.

Keep it clean, watch the laws of libel and try to tiptoe your way through the areas of greatest political sensitivity.

Apart from that, you can go crazy.

This morning we recorded the last of the regular podcasts for this year. It's number eighty in fact. If we can stay sober we may do something from our Christmas lunch next week. Matt Hall and Mark Ellen (pictured) chewed over your memories of pantos you have known, loved and in some cases loathed. I refereed. Mark Ellen claims that he's the answer to the voiceover inndustry's problems. Matt Hall tells a story about Tommy Vance's underpants. It's probably the first time the Morton Fraser Harmonica Gang have had a mention in the same discussion as the BBC's shabby sacking of Ed Stourton. I see the Telegraph are running a "save Ed Stourton" campaign, which is guaranteed to go down well with his bosses at the BBC. Also covered in this podcast, the ethics of throwing footwear at Patti Smith, the extraordinary facts about how rabbits used to live in this country and the profound truth that all broadcasting careers end in rancour and bitterness.

You can subscribe to the podcast for free here or stream the latest one below.

There's just too much music nowadays for any one person to claim to be an expert. For everything you know there's half a dozen things you don't. For every record you've heard there are hundreds you haven't. For every old picture of a group that you recognise there's one that you don't.

If you want to try our General Ignorance Quiz, just follow this link.

A theatre boss told me recently that without the panto season none of Britain's regional theatres could survive. It's the only time of the year the general public pay good money to go to the theatre. That's why well-known names from TV do it. Because they can get paid for performing in front of full houses. It's fame that puts bums on those seats. In the world of panto a name made on TV is worth a lot. That's obviously why Joanna Page from "Gavin and Stacey" is doing Cinderella at Wimbledon. But does she have the legs to stay on the boards for decades to come? Top billing on my local production of Cinderella goes to Anna Karen, who was Olive in "On The Buses" somewhere back in the jurassic era. In Milton Keynes Henry "The Fonz" Winkler is appearing as Captain Hook. Their names can't mean much to the mothers who buy the tickets, let alone the toddlers themselves.

These performers and lots of others are not being cute or ironic. They're putting shoes on the kids feet. Panto is an honourable professional pursuit and has been ever since bands of strolling players roamed the land. There's no reason for us to sneer as if we've happened upon old heroes in reduced circumstances. These people's willingness to submit their legs to a preposterous pair of tights, their pipes to a corny rewrite of a pop favourite and their carefully cultivated public image to the humiliation of the bit on the poster that says "best known as" should be embraced and celebrated.

In this spirit I am anxious to to know, who's doing panto round your way? Has Barry from "EastEnders" via "Extras" popped up in a bellhop's uniform? Are Rula Lenska's legs still stirring something in the loins of grandfathers at the Floral Hall, Scarborough? Where the hell's Aneka Rice in all this? Got any "X-Factor" contestants belting out kids songs at your local Library Theatre? We want to know.

File your local panto report right here right now.

David Hepworth, Andrew Harrison and Matt Hall discuss Jerry Dammers' extraordinary reaction to the reunion of the Specials, a chance meeting with a member of a genuinely legendary band and what to watch after The Wire. Plus Arwa Haider talks about what "Are You Being Served?" meant to an Iraqi girl growing up in the UK. You can subscribe to the podcast for free here or stream the latest one below.

Thanks to Danny Baker for tipping us to the Church Sign Generator.

We're giving a prize for the best one submitted by the end of the day.

Dig in.

In 1976 Scorpions put out an album called Virgin Killer. The cover was a naked pre-pubescent girl. A few eyebrows were raised but I don't remember riots in the street. Not surprisingly, they had to change it for the States. Now Wikipedia finds itself being blocked by some ISPs because it published the original on its Scorpions entry. They object that this is a slippery slope. We would show you this ourselves but it's simply not worth the grief.

Virgin Killer is the most extreme example of an album cover image that you wouldn't be able to get away with today. Here's a few more.

Rod Stewart: "An Old Raincoat Will Never Let You Down" (1969) His first solo album. A child molester pursues his quarry. Changed for the US, funnily enough.	Tom Jones: "A-Tom-Ic Jones" (1966) At the height of the Cold War he's pictured in front of a scene of mass slaughter. Bit like calling your 2004 record "Tom's Tsunami".
Blind Faith: Blind Faith (1969) The photographer stopped a school girl on the Tube and asked her if she would pose naked. She suggested her younger sister instead. She got a pony as a fee. This actually happened.	Boxer: Below The Belt (1975) Some people reckoned that the boxing glove in the crotch might encourage violence against women. Changed for the US.
Sugar Ray: Lemonade & Brownies (1995) It's perfectly innocent. She left her mobile downstairs and she's listening for the ringtone.	Mom's Apple Pie (1971) Anyone want a piece?
Silverhead: Sixteen and Savaged (1973) Let's see. She's celebrated gaining the age of consent by entertaining all the members of Michael Des Barres' band. Ah, we made our own entertainment in those days.	Van Halen: Balance (1995) Only twelve years ago this was considered an appropriate way to package an album by America's premier hard rock band. Nominated for a Grammy.
Nirvana: Nevermind (1991) Try walking into a record company in 2008 and saying you want to have a naked baby's penis on the cover of your new album. See how long you last.	The Coup: Party Music (2001) Originally slated for release in September 2001, the cover was swiftly changed when real-life events overtook the band's choice of image. Ouch.

Christmas is coming, the goose is seeing a doctor about his weight, and there's a new issue of THE WORD at the newsagent. To celebrate its arrival, Mark Ellen and Kate Mossman have prised themselves away from the egg nog and mulled wine to read some of their favourite passages.

Also in this month's issue: Samuel L Jackson, Malcolm Gladwell, Martin Scorsese, the Best & Worst rock gimmicks ever, Mitch Mitchell, Anvil, Neil Gaiman, The Ting Tings, Fleet Foxes, Evan Davis, Lance Reddick, Girls Aloud, Rebecca Romero, John Oliver, Damon Albarn, Ruth Jones, Seasick Steve, page after page after page of reviews, plus the best CDs, DVDs and books of 2008.

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall on: Brian Eno's belief in the power of communal singing, the art of writing a song to go with a good title, Word's win at the Record Of The Day Awards, the challenge of playing "Hallelujah" on the ukulele and our brilliant buy-a-sub-for-yourself-and-another-for-a-Christmas-present-offer.

You can subscribe to the podcast for free here or stream the latest one below.

Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed the grand DVD box-set trivia quiz we're running in the magazine, a chance to win riches to spend on the quality audio-visual entertainment of your choice.

Because we like to make things easy for you, you can now enter the competition online, although you'll need to be registered and logged in to take part.

Enter the competition.

Our Backstage podcasts are a bit of a relief from the relentless levity of their weekly cousins. In these we try to give people who've got something to say the time to say it. In the past they've featured author Neal Stephenson, musician Don Felder and TV producer Mark Cooper among others. You can subscribe to either of them here.

This latest features Malcolm Gladwell, the "New Yorker" writer who made his name with the book "The Tipping Point". Gladwell specialises in taking the lessons of science and applying them to human behaviour. In this podcast he talks to David Hepworth about his new book "Outliers: The Story Of Success" and his own unplanned career path. You can stream the podcast below.

Look! It's Marc Bolan, and he's celebrating the arrival of Word's annual online advent calendar! Just like last year, we've scoured YouTube to find the very best in Christmas clips, and each day we'll be adding another video, right up until the 25th. It really doesn't get any more festive than that.

1. Princess Leia sings as the entire cast wish everyone in the galaxy a Star Wars Christmas.
2. The Queen's 1957 Christmas Message, broadcast for the first time via the "new medium" of television. There's a lovely bit at the end where Her Maj glances off camera and grins, obviously delighted she's made it through the ordeal in one piece.
3. Sigur Rós play I'll Get A Christmas Present, better known locally as Ég fæ jólagjöf. Remarkably, this live footage comes from the last century.
4. Ahh, the nostalgia. Ooh, the celebrities. It can only be a 25-year-old Woolworths Christmas ad.
5. Perhaps the second-most-famous shower scene in cinema history.
6. Bill Nighy lurches through a festive tribute to The Troggs, surrounded by Robert Palmer's ladyband. Someone must have thought this was a good idea.
7. Fanny Craddock stuffs her arm up a turkey. TV doesn't get any more terrifying than this.
8. Perhaps the best former-Beatle-Christmas-single ever. Which means it's not Mull of Bleedin' Kintyre.
9. Every year, about this time, Kurtis Blow celebrates, with a rhyme.
10. Ritchie Blackmore explains the Satanic origins of Christmas carols.
11. Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys with a bit of country Christmas, Texas style.
12. The best version of Jona Lewie's Stop the Cavalry you'll ever see.
13. Time to ROCK. Round Ten Benson's house they're having a black Christmas.
14. Meanwhile, George is spending his last white Christmas at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
15. Oscar the Grouch hates Christmas.
16. Snoop Dogg, Word's favourite rapper, confirms that Santa does indeed head straight for the ghetto.
17. Willie Nelson, dressed as one of the three kings, brings the infant Jesus a lot more than frankincense.
18. Christmas doesn't get any more METAL than Manowar (warning: contains breasts).
19. Xxx-mas Kitten: this may well be the weirdest Christmas song in the entire history of humankind.
20. A modern Christmas classic from the Flaming Lips: Xmas At The Zoo.
21. Leather Elvis, dressed in black, sings the blues.
22. Every year, Darlene Love appears on the Letterman Show and sings this song. We'd like to repeat the tradition here.
23. Aretha Franklin sings. Really sings.
24. Santa's laughter mocks the poor. And so say all of us.
25. And a Very Merry Christmas from all at The Word.