Dependencies:
  * [[g>HTML::Entities]], [[g>MP3::Info]] and [[g>HTTP:Cookies]], from [[g>cpan]] (aside: you might want to download [[g>LWP]] on CPAN to stop it whining, but maybe avoid updating it unless you can leave it overnight, with a squirrel pressing enter every couple of hours)
  * [[g>flvstreamer]] (install with "make posix; mv flvstreamer rtmpsrv rtmpsuck streams /usr/local/bin/" as root)
  * [[g>FFmpeg]] (not strictly necessary, used to convert the flv file format into something more mainstream, like mp4)
    * [[g>yasm]] (not the faintest idea what this is)

If you get the error:

  WARNING: Running the updater again to obtain plugins.
  ERROR: /usr/local/bin/get_iplayer is not writable - aborting update (maybe a package manager was used to install get_iplayer?)

the first time you run it, you need to run once as root to allow it to update its plugins.  However, it may install them in the wrong place -- in ~/.get_iplayer/plugins, when it will subsequently look in /usr/share/get_iplayer/plugins -- so you may need to move them afterwards or symlink.  Then you should be able to run get_iplayer as an ordinary user without it attempting to update.

======flvstreamer======

flvstreamer and rtmpdump are alternatives.  This time I've had quicker success with rtmpdump than flvstreamer.  To switch between the two, set the path to the preferred executable in ~/.get_iplayer/options:

<code>
flvstreamer /usr/local/bin/rtmpdump
</code>

Note that warnings about SWF verification aren't necessarily fatal.
======Non-descript errors======

I got very undescriptive errors when I tried to download to non-existent directories.  Note this can also be set in ~/.get_iplayer/options so if you copied that across it might be screwing you.