This week we review - One Fools & Horses (Series 3 Episode 3) Created and written by John Sullivan, seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom from 1981 to 1991, with sixteen sporadic Christmas specials aired until the end of the show in 2003. Set in Peckham in south-east London, it stars David Jason as ambitious market trader Derek "Del Boy" Trotter, Nicholas Lyndhurst as his younger brother Rodney Trotter, and Lennard Pearce as their elderly Grandad as their si...
May 18, 2020•58 min
This week we review - The Wilsons Save The World (Series 1 Episode 4) Michael and Maxine Wilson and their daughters, Lola and Cat have resolved to live a more ethical life. Millions of people try every day to make 'good' choices and do the 'right thing'. It's hard. Most of us live with hypocrisy and failure all the time but keep on trying. The Wilsons are trying about 20% harder and learning to live with about 19% more failure. In the last episode in the series Max and Mike attempt to get their ...
May 11, 2020•57 min
This week we review - The Goes Wrong Show (Series 1 Episode 6) The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society undertake another (overly) ambitious endeavour, held back by prolific over-actor Robert Grove, the screen-hogging Sandra Wilkinson and the artistically mistrusted Dennis Tyde. Six hand-crafted, half hours of theatrical catastrophe include the gripping courtroom drama 'A Trial to Watch' and World War II spy thriller 'The Pilot' (which is not the pilot). The Goes Wrong Show is simply Mischief's big...
May 04, 2020•57 min
This week we review - Frankie Howerd (Series 2 Episode 4) Originally made for and broadcast on BBC Radio 2, there isn't a huge amount written about this Frankie Howerd show which seems somewhat confused by it's own identity. Named in listings and on the BBC website as simply 'Frankie Howerd' but rereferred to in the show as 'Frankie Howerd's Illustrious Memoirs' and even named in some quarters as 'The Frankie Howerd Show' (a throwback to his 1966 radio show), this radio show spanned twenty episo...
Apr 27, 2020•53 min
This week we review - Kate & Koji (Series 1 Episode 1) Kate, the working-class owner of an old-fashioned seaside café forms an unexpected and sparky friendship with Koji, an African asylum seeker. Although from very different worlds, they are similar in ways which they do not recognise, including a dogged determination to never back down! When the fur does start to fly, Kate's resourceful nephew 'Medium' acts as peacemaker. Written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin Produced by Andy Hamilton, G...
Apr 20, 2020•58 min
This week we review - Mark Watson Talks A Bit About Life (Series 3 Episode 4) Radio 4 series from multi-award winning Mark Watson where he reignites his quest to improve the world. Previous series have seen Mark and his two deputies eradicate the seven deadly sins, promote virtue throughout the world, and broadcast live to the nation allowing the audience to guide Mark's attempts to make the world a better place. This latest format will see Mark and two henchmen tackle the bigger, more academic ...
Apr 13, 2020•56 min
This week we review - Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (Series 2 Episode 8) To say that Frank Spencer is a one-man walking disaster area would be somewhat of an understatement. Although ever enthusiastic and well-intentioned, Frank is entirely feckless. An accident-prone, underachieving social misfit, he is loved by his wife and no one else; his will to keep going despite it being obvious to everyone else that he is making things worse is not too ingratiating a trait. Written by Raymond Allen Directed B...
Apr 06, 2020•57 min
This week we review - Meet The Richardsons (Series 1 Episode 4) A fictional window into the funny and frustrated marriage of Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont. This comedy series sees stand-up comedians Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont play exaggerated versions of themselves as viewers get a glimpse into their home and work lives, surrounded by their celebrity friends and their Hebden Bridge neighbours. Meet The Richardsons shows what their neighbours really think of them, the type of birthday pa...
Mar 30, 2020•53 min
This week we review - Sally4Ever (Series 1 Episode 1) Sally4Ever follows the life of Sally, a soon-to-be promoted marketer who, for 10 years, has lived a comfortable and dull suburban life with David. But on the night he asks her to marry him, Sally has a crisis and embarks on a wild affair with Emma, a seductive, charismatic, boho actress, singer, musician, poet and author. Before Sally knows it, Emma has moved in, rearranged the furniture and her life. Is this really what Sally wants, or has s...
Mar 23, 2020•58 min
This week we review - The Trip (Series 1 Episode 1) Improvised food-based travel tours with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. The stories are fictional but based around their real personas. When Steve is commissioned by the food supplement of a Sunday newspaper to review half a dozen restaurants, he decides to mix work with pleasure and plans a trip around the north with his food-loving American girlfriend. But when she decides to leave him and return to the States, Steve is faced with a week of meal...
Mar 16, 2020•1 hr
This week we review - King Gary (Series 1 Episode 1) 'King Gary follows childhood sweethearts Gary and Terri King, a loved up husband and wife, and their aspirations to achieve social acceptance and moderate material success in competitive suburbia. This, accompanied by drama queen Gary's constant need to impress his prehistoric old school Dad, Big Gary, and attempt to fill his big boots, equals a massive 'try hard' douchebag. King Gary is a study of how the small things in life can be blown up ...
Mar 09, 2020•58 min
This week we review - Lead Balloon (Series 2 Episode 3) Rick Spleen is a successful but disillusioned stand-up comedian. He spends his days hosting corporate events such as The Heating and Ventilation Awards, arguing with his co-writer Marty and trying to hide his incompetence from Mel, his partner. Rick is a habitual liar, but as he is not a very good one it is a trait which more often than not lands him in a deep hole... which he invariably then digs himself into even deeper when he piles more...
Mar 02, 2020•1 hr 5 min
This week we review - Old Harry's Game (Series 1 Episode 1) Life is not easy. Spending eternity in a place filled with fire and brimstone while the bottom half of you has been turned into a goat is even worse, but that is what Satan has to put up with. Satan is somewhat world-weary (or rather underworld-weary), and spends most of his time torturing Thomas Quentin Crimp, the evilest human in the world, ignoring his sycophantic and grotesque assistant Scumspawn, and trying to argue with the Profes...
Feb 24, 2020•57 min
This week we review - Derry Girls (Series 1 Episode 1) It's 1994 - a time when nobody can seem to agree on anything, except how much they all enjoy using an acronym (The IRA, The UDA, The RUC). Armed police in armoured Land Rovers, British Army check points and "peace" walls are all an everyday reality for 16-year old Erin and her friends. Erin lives with her uncompromising mother, her long-suffering father and the fearsome 'Granda Joe', a man whose love for his daughters and granddaughters is s...
Feb 17, 2020•59 min
This week we review - Fags, Mags & Bags (Series 8 Episode 4) Sitcom written by and starring Sanjeev Kohli and Donald Mcleary, set in a Scots-Asian corner shop near Glasgow. Join the staff of Fags, Mags and Bags in their tireless quest to bring nice-price custard creams and cans of coke with Arabic writing on them to an ungrateful nation. Ramesh Mahju has built it up over the course of over 30 years and is a firmly entrenched, friendly presence in the local area. Ramesh loves the art of the '...
Feb 10, 2020•55 min
This week we review - Peep Show (Series 5 Episode 4) A sitcom about Mark and Jeremy (Jez), two socially dysfunctional men. Despite having nothing in common they share a South London flat. Wannabe 'musician' Jeremy is a lazy man with big ideas, mostly about himself. Meanwhile Mark is an astonishingly tragic obsessive loser with a no-pain, no-gain view of the world. Their deepest, darkest thoughts and feelings are revealed as they try to find their place in the modern world and endeavour to find l...
Feb 03, 2020•58 min
This week we review - Flight Of The Conchords (Series 1 Episode 8) Flight of the Conchords are a New Zealand comedy duo composed of musicians Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. The duo's comedy and music became the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series that aired for two seasons on HBO. They previously referred to themselves as "New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo", but as of 2014 refer to themselves as "the alm...
Jan 27, 2020•55 min
This week we review - Olga Koch (Fight) In 2014, Olga Koch’s father got stopped by authorities on the Russian border, which resulted in the most surreal year of her family’s life. Olga takes the listener behind the iron curtain, giving us an insight into what it was like to grow up in the newly-formed Russian Federation, how Putin's Russia came about, and why her family now live in exile in Munich. Based on Olga's hit Edinburgh Award-nominated show, Fight is the battle cry for a generation that ...
Jan 20, 2020•1 hr
This week we review - Pete Versus Life (Series 1 Episode 1) Rafe Spall stars as twenty-something Pete, a struggling sports writer. Although well meaning, Pete often lacks the emotional maturity required to deal with life's more intricate problems. Pete wishes that life had clearly defined rules... like sport does. But life isn't like sport, as Pete is only beginning to realise. The unusual twist with this sitcom is that Pete's life is commented on as if it was an exciting sporting event, by two ...
Jan 13, 2020•57 min
This week we review - Extras (Series 2 Episode 2) Andy Millman gives up his day job to become an actor but finds that the lead roles elude him, so he instead has to settle for work as an 'extra' (background actor). During his time on set Millman has to work with stars such as Kate Winslet, Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Stiller. By the second series, Andy Millman begins filming his sitcom (When The Whistle Blows) and moves from background artist to TV face. Despite his burgeoning success, Andy is sti...
Jan 06, 2020•1 hr
This week we review - Plebs (Series 3 Episode 8) A thoroughly modern comedy in an ancient setting. Rome is traditionally imagined as the home of emperors and senators, generals and gladiators, a dignified theatre of pomp and ceremony. But what about the little guys, the wasters - new to the big city, stuck in office jobs, unable to get the girls? Plebs follows three desperate young men from the suburbs as they try to get laid, hold down jobs and climb the social ladder in the big city - a city t...
Dec 30, 2019•54 min
This week we review - Porridge (Series 2 Christmas Special) Set in Slade Prison, Porridge documents the life of Norman Stanley Fletcher, an habitual criminal. Fletcher is a smart, witty, cunning and loveable character. He shares his cell with young Lennie Godber, a first time inmate upon whom he imparts his considerable wisdom and knowledge of the penal system and how to cope. The pair must contend with troublesome fellow cons, harsh wardens, unwitting mishaps and the regular stresses of prison ...
Dec 23, 2019•1 hr
This week we review - The Cockfields (Series 1 Episode 1) Sitcom focusing on a man who takes his girlfriend to meet his family at their home on the Isle of Wight for the very first time. There they'll spend a long weekend as guests of his ever-doting mother Sue and controlling stepdad Ray. Simon has been persuaded to mark the occasion of his 40th birthday back at the Cockfield family home and there's a fair amount of Isle of Wight "fun" in store for the couple, alongside interruptions from Simon...
Dec 16, 2019•54 min
This week we review - I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (Series 72 Episode 3) This show started out as a spin-off from the BBC radio series I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again. The idea being that I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue was an unscripted version of the original. ISIHAC is a parody of the traditional panel show, with games designed to humiliate and confuse. Points come for show's lovely (and fictitious) scorer Samantha. Games include the self-explanatory "One Song to the Tune of Another"; mad word game "...
Dec 11, 2019•58 min
This week we review - The Young Offenders (Series 1 Episode 1) The Young Offenders follows the coming of age adventures of lovable rogues Conor and Jock as they navigate their awkward teenage years, hatching plans and adventures to help distract from their tough home lives and their inability to stay out of trouble at school. The show is based on the 2016 film of the same name, with Alex Murphy and Chris Walley reprising their roles. Conor's long suffering mother Mairead tries to keep both her s...
Dec 02, 2019•55 min
This week we review - Ed Reardon's Week (Series 11 Episode 6) This sitcom follows the life of Ed Reardon, a curmudgeonly writer who has only managed to have one novel published since the 60s. Despite his distinct lack of success, Ed remains bullishly optimistic about his future. Yes, he may only have a single pair of trousers and have one of the lowest sales ranks on Amazon, but no writer knows more about stealing stationery from their agent... as a freeloader Ed Reardon is the acknowledged king...
Nov 25, 2019•59 min
This week we review - Master Of None (Series 1 Episode 1) Master of None follows the personal and professional life of Dev, a 30-year-old actor in New York. His life goes by in a humorous, yet meaningful sequence of events as he hangs out with his three friends, does his best to find a relationship, whilst trying to get ahead in his career. All of this proves to be quite difficult because Dev has trouble deciding what he wants to eat, much less what the pathway will be for the rest of his life. ...
Nov 18, 2019•1 hr
This week we review - Man Down (Series 1 Episode 1) Dan is a childish idiot trapped in an adult's life. He has crushing character flaws, a uniquely dysfunctional set of friends, a teaching job he loathes, and a wilfully insane father conspiring to keep this man down. Dan's world is at near collapse as Man Down starts. His girlfriend Naomi is fast running out of patience with his inability to navigate the simplest of life tasks, while his best friends are Jo who has, what can only be described as...
Nov 11, 2019•59 min
This week we review - Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show (Series 1 Episode 3) One-time variety star Count Arthur Strong (Steve Delaney) is all tourettic tics, false starts and nervous fumbling, badly covered up by a delicate sheen of bravado and self-assurance. With his jumbled delivery of words, delusions of grandeur and ability to get monumentally sidetracked, normal daily tasks become a challenge for Arthur and more often than not, those around him too. Arthur is almost always oblivious to the ...
Nov 04, 2019•59 min
This week we review - Upstart Crow (Series 1 Episode 1) It's 1592 and Will Shakespeare is just at the beginning of his extraordinary career. The series focuses on both Will's family and professional life and include the surprising stories of where many of his ideas came from. Also featured are his wife Anne and his extended family, his servant Bottom, his friends Kate and Marlowe, his theatrical troupe, and his rival Robert Greene. In the series, Will finds inspiration for Romeo from an unlikely...
Oct 28, 2019•58 min
