Bespeaks

While reviewing A Cock And Bull Story, Mark Kermode said it had "that shambolic structure that bespeaks real thought." Having so recently bickered over "mephitic", here was a new word for the Good Doctors to quarrel about (SIMON: So it means the same as "speaks of." MARK: Yes, but it's more elegant. SIMON: Or show-offy).

A listener emailed in to say that the dictionary defined the way Mark had used "bespeaks" as archaic, but the Good Doctor happily admitted that he himself was archaic.

The Whitbred Award-winning poet Michael Simmons Roberts later told Simon Mayo after an edition of the Daily Mayo that he particularly enjoys Mark's use of "bespeaks."