This time we review Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads (Series 1 Episode 6) It's been over 5 years since the little mishap that left Terry in the Army and Bob discharged with flat feet in The Likely Lads. Terry, now back in civilian life, returns to Newcastle to find that everything has changed - not least his friend Bob who is now engaged to be married and upwardly mobile in more ways than one. There is no love lost between Terry and Bob's fiancée, Thelma, so reinvigorating their friendship w...
Feb 22, 2022•44 min
This time we review How Does That Make You Feel (Two epsiodes) In How Does that Make You Feel? we visit a group of people who all share one thing in common, a therapist called Martha... oh, and a growing set of neuroses which appear to be overtaking their wholly imperfect lives. As therapists go, Martha is reasonably compassionate, but deep down she's losing patience. It seems all her clients want to be something they are not, and it's driving them and her, out of their minds? There's Richard Fa...
Feb 15, 2022•46 min
This time we review Avenue 5 (Series 1 Episode 1) Avenue 5 has been described as "set in the future, mostly in space." On board the interplanetary cruise ship, the Avenue 5, a momentary loss of artificial gravity and accidental death of its chief engineer sends the titular vessel a few degrees off course. It's estimated it will take the ship three years to return to Earth, and with only enough supplies to sustain her many passengers for the intended eight-week long cruise, the crew of the Avenue...
Feb 08, 2022•45 min
This time we review Believe It (Series 4 Legacy) Based on 'glimmers of truth', Believe It! is the bizarre, revealing and, most importantly, untrue celebrity radiography of Richard Wilson. Celebrity autobiographies are everywhere. Richard Wilson has always said he'd never write one but he does narrate this series, weaving in and out of dramatised scenes from his fictional life story. He plays a heavily exaggerated version of himself: a Scots actor and national treasure, unmarried, private, passio...
Feb 01, 2022•45 min
This time we review It's Kevin (Series 1 Episode 4) It's sketches, it's songs, it's characters, it's guests, it's a man who's old enough to know better mucking about, with help from a number of his comedy friends. It's Kevin Eldon. Bring you a song and dance number, The Incredible Moose Human, The Great Spagboletti, A Fictional Northern Man, John Lennon's Head, The Perspective Twins, some performance poetry, Wendy Wilson's White Coat Window On The World Of World Wide Wonders, a sketch with a doc...
Jan 25, 2022•45 min
This time we review Sophie Willan's Guide To Normality (Series 1 Episode 3 & 4) Break out comedy star (as she was at the time) Sophie Willan comes to Radio 4 with an exciting stand-up series looking at what it is to be 'normal'. Sophie grew up in and out of the Care System and had an unconventional childhood. In this, her debut series she will get to grips with - and often challenge - our perception of 'the perfect normal life', shining a light on the reality of the British experience. Writt...
Jan 18, 2022•46 min
Home (Series 1 Episode 1) When new couple Peter and Katy and Katy's son John go on their first family holiday to France. The plan is to bring back a tan, a few happy memories and six crates of vintage champagne but what they actually bring back is going to come as a big surprise. Home follows the experience of Sami, a Syrian refugee who enters Britain illegally to claim asylum. Living in with Peter, Katy and John while he waits for his application to be processed, Sami learns more than he expect...
Jan 11, 2022•45 min
Two Doors Down (Series 5 Episode 1) Comedy centred around a couple and their insufferable neighbours. Latimer Crescent residents Eric and Beth Baird are friendly, warm, and perhaps a little too polite for their own good. They're more than happy to welcome son Ian and his boyfriend into their home; but neighbours Cathy, Colin and Christine regularly make their presence felt in a far more forceful manner. Christine is a moaner, hypochondriac and freeloading single mother who's kept now-adult daugh...
Jan 04, 2022•45 min
The Goon Show (Series 7 Episode 1) The Goon Show, originally under the title of Crazy People focused on the bizarre experiments of Prof Osric Pureheart, played by Michael Bentine working alongside Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe. After two series, Bentine left the show and as a result, a new title character was created - Neddie Seagoon. Episodes tended to involve Neddie trying to achieve some kind of greatness, often with the help of the idiotic but happy Eccles and the young Blu...
Dec 28, 2021•45 min
Rising Damp (Series 2 Episode 8) An unnamed northern university town is home to Rupert Rigsby, landlord of arguably the seediest, most run-down boarding house that England has to offer. His unlucky tenants include Ruth Jones, an administrator at the university; Alan, a medical student; and Philip, who is studying town and country planning. Between them, Alan and Philip are the focus and foil of the majority of Rigsby's many prejudices, usually at the expense of his dignity and standing in the ey...
Dec 21, 2021•46 min
Rev (Series 2 Episode 2) Rev is a contemporary sitcom about the daily frustrations and moral conflicts of Reverend Adam Smallbone - a Church of England Vicar who was 'promoted' from a sleepy rural parish to the busy, inner-city world of St Saviour's, in East London. Adam's long-suffering wife - does her best to support him, but she's got her own career as a solicitor to worry about. And she is no-one's idea of a conventional vicar's wife. Anybody can, and does, come into St Saviour's - and into ...
Dec 14, 2021•44 min
The Outlaws (Series 1 Episode 1) The Outlaws follows seven strangers from different walks of life forced together to complete Community Payback sentences in Bristol. At first, they seem like archetypes we can easily pigeon hole but gradually we see behind their façades, understand their hidden depths and what made them the people they are today. We are reminded that no one is all good or all bad. Everyone has a story. As their unlikely new friendships intersect with their complicated private liv...
Dec 07, 2021•46 min
The Tuckers (Series 1 Episode) Set in the south Wales valleys, The Tuckers tells the story of a family of chancers, low on cash but high on spirit - determined to survive through any means necessary. They run a catering business, not always successfully, and a few things on the side, not always legit. Peggy rules the roost, with Glyn, her son, next in command. His children, Billy and Bobby, are never far from trouble, and Bobby's ex-wife, Natalie lives next door - with Shaks, their young daughte...
Nov 30, 2021•44 min
Lines From My Grandfather's Forehead (From 15th March 1971) Lines From My Grandfather's Forehead, is a British comedy radio sketch show, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1971. Two series of eight episodes were broadcast and in addition, there were two special episodes. A Christmas special, entitled Lines From My Grandfather Christmas's Forehead and a compilation of selected items from past editions, under the title Just A Few Lines From My Grandfather's Forehead. The show was created by BBC Rad...
Nov 23, 2021•45 min
Saxondale (Series 2 Episode 1) Saxondale is a sitcom by Steve Coogan and Neil Maclennan which focuses on the life of Tommy Saxondale (Coogan). Tommy is a world-travelled ex-roadie with anger-management issues who owns a pest control business in Stevenage. Saxondale regards himself as a maverick and a free-thinker and takes every opportunity to impart his wisdom to his young assistant Raymond. As well as Pharaoh ants, mice and occasionally moths, during the sitcom Tommy has to battle with snowboa...
Nov 08, 2021•46 min
Sam Simmons Is Not A People Person (Series 1 Episodes 1&2) Comedian. Writer. Ex-Zoo Keeper. Bird Watcher. Definitely NOT a people person. Sam and Henry are making a series about birds, and every week - armed with Sam's 'Big Book of Birds' they're looking for a different one. Sadly, and despite Henry's very best efforts, Sam keeps being distracted by the people they run into. Each encounter sparks an investigation into Sam's past, because once they've sorted out his issues, then they'll reall...
Nov 01, 2021•46 min
This week we review Alma's Not Normal (Series 1 Episode 1) Alma's Not Normal follows Boltonian wild-child Alma Nuthall and her family of eccentric, unruly women. With no qualifications and a rebellious streak a mile wide, Alma decides to become an escort to support her dreams of becoming a star and leaving Bolton. Meanwhile, Alma's mother Lin battles with both her addiction to heroin and her troubled relationship with her own mother Joan with the same chaotic fervour. Having only just discovered...
Oct 25, 2021•45 min
This week we review Nighty Night (Series 2 Episode 6) Jill is a monstrously self-involved beautician whose husband, Terry, is dying of cancer. Her reaction to such terrible news is to tell everyone that Terry has died and pursue her neighbour, Don, a doctor whose wife is suffering from MS. She commits murder but successfully frames her admirer - a man called Glen who is subsequently detained in an institution for the mentally insane. Meanwhile Jill is planning to move on with her life, but first...
Oct 18, 2021•45 min
This week we review The Cleaner (Series 1 Episode 2) Paul 'Wicky' Wickstead, is a state-certified cleaning technician with a very special field of work: as a crime scene cleaner he is responsible for the removal of any signs of death. Wicky works for Shropshire-based cleaning contractors Lausen and is usually found, together with his baby-blue pickup truck, at crime scenes after the police have concluded their detective work. Armed with chemicals, scrubbing brushes and cleaning rags, Wicky remov...
Oct 11, 2021•45 min
This week we review This Is Jinsy (Series 1 Episode 1) This Is Jinsy started life as a pilot on BBC Three, but has now been turned into a full show by Sky. The series follows Arbiter Maven (the 17th Arbiter and 'Wearer of the Hat') and Operative Sporall (nice hair and 'Wearer of the Beige Suit') as they keep a close eye on the 791 residents of Jinsy from the Great Tower in the parish of Veen. Life on the island is rather Orwellian: each colourful member of the community is monitored by a surveil...
Sep 27, 2021•45 min
This week we review Continuity (Series 1 Episodes 5 & 6) A continuity announcer's booth can be a lonely place - especially on the late shift, when you've barely seen your wife and children for a week. But this Radio 4 continuity announcer is a consummate professional, and he's not going to let his own insignificant little problems get in the way of everybody else's listening pleasure - especially when there are so many exciting programmes coming up for him to describe to listeners. Alistair ...
Sep 20, 2021•45 min
This week we review - (Series 4 Episode 6) Blackadder Goes Forth is set in 1917 on the Western Front in the trenches of World War I. Captain Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) is a professional soldier in the British Army who, until the outbreak of the Great War, has enjoyed a relatively danger-free existence fighting natives who were usually "two feet tall and armed with dried grass". Finding himself trapped in the trenches with another "big push" planned, his concern is to avoid being sent ove...
Sep 13, 2021•45 min
This week we review - Hobby Bobbies (Series 1 Episode 1) Hobby Bobbies is a sitcom about community policing from the team behind The Music Teacher, Dave Against The Machine and 15 Minute Musicals. Nigel is probably Britain’s longest serving Community Police Support Officer, and Geoff is probably the laziest. They make quite a team. Written by the acerbic voice over who commentates on the twists and turns of the long running cooking show 'Come Dine With Me' (as well as appearing in People Like Us...
Sep 06, 2021•45 min
This week we review - Limmy's Home Made Show (Episode 3) Limmy returns with a new helping of his distinctive brand of comedy and this time he has gone completely solo. Self-shot in his home and out and about in locations around his native Glasgow. Punctuated by techno versions of familiar ditties, Limmy's Homemade Show features scenes and musings which often seem to be rooted in the mundane - until the funnyman adds his own particular twists. The series takes DIY comedy to a new level. There's a...
Aug 30, 2021•43 min
This week we review - We Are Lady Parts (Series 1 Episode 1) Sitcom following a Muslim punk band. We Are Lady Parts is written, created and directed by Nida Manzoor, who has drawn on her own experiences and taken inspiration from the rich and diverse cultural collectives and artists in London; and boasts an exciting ensemble cast of new British acting talent. We Are Lady Parts shows the highs and lows of the band - called Lady Parts - as seen through the eyes of Amina Hussain - a geeky microbiol...
Aug 23, 2021•46 min
This week we review - Alun Chochrane: Centrist Dad? Despite their bad reputation, Alun Cochrane is fine with being a "Centrist Dad". Join Alun for this recording of his stand-up special for Radio 4 in which he examines the state of political discourse in Britain and tries to find his place on the ever-evolving UK left-right political spectrum. Alun has never considered himself an offensive comedian but now finds himself to be one of the few pro free speech comedians. How come he feels right wing...
Aug 16, 2021•45 min
This week we review - Max & Paddy's Road To Nowhere (Series 1 Episode 1) Comedy spin-off from Peter Kay's award-winning Phoenix Nights series. The stars are doormen Max and Paddy who take to the open road in their prized motor home and wreak havoc across the country. Living in such a confined space proves more difficult than they first thought and, without any suitable home entertainment, they end up sampling the local nightlife where Max's new dance moves are a hit with the infamous Belgran...
Aug 09, 2021•45 min
This week we review - The Shuttleworths (Series 4 Episodes 1&2) Radio sitcom in which all parts are voiced by comedian Graham Fellows. John Shuttleworth, Sheffield's favourite singer-songwriter, takes to the airwaves with his electronic keyboard, wife Mary, and next door neighbour (and sole agent) Ken Worthington in tow. The fifteen minute episode are based "Sheffield's number one singer-songwriter" as he gives his thoughts on everyday life, and performs ditties on his keyboard. John's adven...
Aug 02, 2021•45 min
This week we review - Code 404 (Series 1 Episodes 1) Detective Inspectors DI John Major and DI Roy Carver are the top crime fighting duo in the Met's Special Investigation Unit. But when an undercover sting goes horribly wrong, Major is gunned down on the job and killed. How will the SIU function without Major? It doesn't have to. As an 'asset' considered too valuable to lose, Major's body is fast-tracked into an experimental Artificial Intelligence project to bring him back from the dead. The o...
Jul 26, 2021•46 min
This week we review - All New Fonejacker (Episodes 7 & 8) Fonejacker is a British comedy programme broadcast on Channel 4's E4 featuring a series of prank calls involving a number of different characters performed by British Iranian television actor Kayvan Novak. In 2005 Kayvan Novak and Ed Tracy created, wrote and directed Fonejacker, a prank call show, as part of Channel 4 Comedy Lab. After making the pilot together they were given a Christmas special and a six-part series which began airi...
Jul 19, 2021•45 min
