I’ve written before about radio comedies that I enjoy such as Bleak Expectations and Cabin Pressure. Well here is another one I’ve heard recently: ElvenQuest. It’s a parody of Tolkienesqe fantasy epics, following a group of adventurers on a quest in Lower Earth: the dim elf Vidar, the warrior princess Penthiselea and the unpleasant dwarf Dean. They seek the Sword of Asnagar, which if wielded by the Chosen One will help them overthrow the evil Lord Darkness. It turns out that the Chosen One is actually a dog called Amis, the pet of a real world fantasy novelist, the misanthropic Sam. So they cross a magic portal and bring Sam and Amis into Lower Earth, where Amis turns into a human but with the personality of a dog. They travel around looking for the sword and coming up against Lord Darkness.

There are twelve episodes so far (two series of six episodes) and I listened to them all over the weekend. While I don’t think that it is quite as good as those other shows I have reviewed, I did enjoy it a lot. The cast is full of excellent comedy actors (including Stephen Mangan, Darren Boyd, Kevin Eldon and Alistair McGowan). It does a good job of parodying various fantasy clichés while also having a good plot itself, and most importantly it is funny. It looks as though the BBC are airing repeats available on iPlayer so now would be the ideal time to check it out.