This is a short stop motion animation video, based on the Radio 4 show, Old Harry’s Game. I love how they’ve even made the Devil look a bit like Andy Hamilton (writer and star of the show). If you like the radio show then check this out. Even if you haven’t heard the show you should give it a watch anyway, it’s ace.

So I have just finished watching The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff. When I heard that they were adapting the radio show Bleak Expectations for the television I was excited but also a bit skeptical. There was a Christmas special on over the holidays which I enjoyed, and I thought it was good but not as brilliant as the original show overall. After a bit of a break the television show returned with three new episodes which have now finished airing. Again, I enjoyed them, they were funny in places and good enough, but they just seemed to lack whatever it was that made the radio show so brilliant. Overall I liked The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff and I would watch more of the same, and if I had never heard the radio show then I know I would have loved this one a lot more. But ultimately I was also somewhat disappointed and I am looking forward to the next (and sadly probably last) series of Bleak Expectations more than ever.

I just listened through all of Cabin Pressure again. This is one of my favourite Radio 4 comedy. I’ve heard all of the episodes quite a few times now, what with listening to it as it was broadcast over the past few years and then listening to it again at times like this. I wrote a bit about it before so I won’t go in to too much detail here because this isn’t really a review.

I’ve been feeling pretty down lately, and I’m very stressed with university stuff, so what I usually do is listen to an episode of a radio comedy show when I go to bed, which helps me get sleepy without just lying in bed with my mind racing. Also I try to get in a 30 minute walk a day, which is the perfect time to listen to a half hour radio comedy. So you may have noticed that I’ve reviewed quite a few radio shows recently.

I had run out of new stuff to listen to which is why I decided to listen again to this show. So here is a pretty good recommendation: even when I am utterly miserable, Cabin Pressure can make me laugh and put a smile on my face for 30 minutes a day. I really don’t know what else you would want from a comedy show.

Here is another post reviewing some radio comedies that I have been listening to. Because of course my reviews of obscure radio programmes are always so popular! </sarcasm>

• The Castle is a radio sitcom which describes itself as, ‘a comedy set in the filth, stench and grime of the middle ages, with some nice music’. It was quite funny, and there were a few great jokes here and there, but overall it was nowhere near as good as some of the other Radio 4 sitcoms out there. But since I am rapidly running out of radio comedies to listen to, it was good to hear it anyway.

• Elvenquest is a parody of Tolkienesque fantasy epics. I wrote about it here when I listened to the show last year, so I won’t repeat myself, just see that review for a fuller summary of the show. The third series was recently broadcast so I listened to the whole show again including the new episodes. I really enjoy it, it is definitely one of my favourites of the radio sitcoms that I listen to, and if anything I enjoyed it more the second time through. I’d really recommend this one.
  

• Bleak Expectations was one of the first radio sitcoms I listened to last year; before that I was mostly tuning in (er, to iPlayer) for the panel shows and sketch shows. Again, you can read my earlier review for a proper summary. I listened to it all again over the recent holidays, and it is still superb. I am looking forward to the fifth series hopefully coming up this year, and to the spin off television show.

• I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue is Radio 4’s ‘perennial antidote to panel games’. It was pretty much the first radio show I started listening to, and it is still the finest panel show on the radio. I have quite a few old episodes that I have been listening to, and I realised that I have never really mentioned the show before, so I should at least include a mention of ISIHAC if I am doing a post about radio shows!

I’m not sure what I’ll be listening to next but I do love my Radio 4 comedies at the moment.

Time for another radio review (for when I want to write something even more obscure than my book reviews and board game reviews!). I have been listening to a lot of radio at night, I find that if I put my iPod on and turn off the light, I can happily listen to an episode or two as I am trying to get to sleep. I also listen to radio shows quite a lot when I’m out walking now too. What I’ve just finished listening to is Old Harry’s Game.

The show is written by comedian Andy Hamilton, and he also plays the role of Satan. The series starts when two new arrivals in Hell start to cause problems for him. One is Thomas, a despicable, amoral, vile man who is regarded by Satan as the worst human ever to exist. The other is the Professor, who appears to be in Hell only because he is an atheist. He gets caught up in a philosophical debate with Satan over the nature of humanity and existence. The other main character is Scumspawn, Satan’s right-hand demon, who is in love with Satan (apart from the first series, which features the demon Gary, who disappears after he led a demon rebellion).

The first four series revolve around Satan and his arguments with the Professor, generally with Satan trying to highlight humanity’s contemptible actions versus the Professor’s idealism. However, the Professor left at the end of the fourth series (the actor had to leave, and this was written into the show as the Professor being transferred to heaven). Series five was shorter and instead focused on the efforts of Satan, Scumspawn and Thomas to deal with issues of overcrowding in Hell. The last two series introduced a new character, Edith, Thomas’ former mother-in-law. These two series had more long-running plot arcs. Series six dealt with Satan’s investigation into Edith’s murder, in exchange for getting her to write his autobiography, and also continued the themes of overcrowding in Hell. Series seven largely focussed on an administrative error which led to a dog and a baby appearing in Hell. There have also been several specials, including a Christmas special last year.

Although there have only been seven series, the show has been running from 1995 (BBC radio scheduling is even more erratic that BBC television scheduling, and the series are just as short!). I can only hope they make a new series soon, because I absolutely loved the show. I thought it did a great job of using a setting that people have preconceptions of already, and managed to make it interesting and unique. I loved the characters, both the main cast and the various recurring characters who have been consigned to Hell (such as the wonderfully foul-mouthed Jane Austen!). It was consistently funny, interesting and entertaining. Of the various radio sitcoms that I’ve listened to over the past few months, I would rank it very highly.

This is a link to Iain Banks discussing his book The Wasp Factory (which I reviewed here) on BBC Radio 4’s Bookclub show. I’ve heard Banks speak on a number of occasions in person, and listened to other interviews with him as well (but no, I am not some obsessed stalker!) and he always has interesting things to say whilst being entertaining at the same time. If you’ve read The Wasp Factory and want to here what Banks has to say about it, now is your opportunity! As a dedicated fan, shall we say, this was a great show to listen to.

I’ve written before about various radio shows that I like, and in fact I probably spend as much time listening to radio comedies as I do watching television, so although they’re a bit more obscure, I figure I should still review them. I don’t have much time for a long review, but here are some brief thoughts.

Fags, Mags and Bags (note the British meaning of the word fag!) is set in a corner shop in a Scottish town. The owner of the shop of Ramesh, who runs the business alongside his friend Dave, and his sons Sanjay and Alok. It’s not really up there with the top class shows, but I enjoyed listening to it.

Hut 33 is set during WW2, at Bletchley Park, and focuses on a group of codebreakers there. Charles is the posh Oxford professor of linguistics, Archie is the Geordie Marxist, Gordon the young maths prodigy, Josh the posh dim-witted commander and Minka, the secretary and former member of the Polish resistance. I really liked this one, the characters are great, the writing is sharp, and overall I thought it was very funny. It’s definitely one of the better radio sitcoms I’ve heard so far.

So there you go, two very different shows, both of which I enjoyed, but one was much better than the other. Overall though, I am very much getting into listening to radio sitcoms, something I was slow to try, alongside the usual panel shows and sketch shows and so on. I have a few others lined up to listen to, so I’m sure I’ll have some more radio reviews at some point soon.

I wrote previously about one of my favourite radio series, Bleak Expectations, a wonderful Dickens parody. There is now interesting news that it is being turned into a television show. Well, rather than a direct adaptation, it is apparently more of a spin-off in the same style, which will be called Bleak Old Shop of Stuff. The cast will include Robert Webb, Stephen Fry, Katherine Parkinson and David Mitchell. This could be very promising, I am certainly looking forward to seeing it (although I am sad to learn that Bleak Expectations will be ending next year too).

Here’s another radio recommendation: I’ve Never Seen Star Wars. Well, I say it’s a radio show, but in actual fact it started out as a radio show, then was a television show briefly, then switched back to radio, with a new series currently being broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra (the channel formerly known as Radio 7). However rumour has it that there are plans to relaunch the television show with a different host, so I’ll keep an eye on that development. The show as it currently exists however is hosted by Marcus Brigstocke, and each episode he takes one guest and makes them do a number of things that they claim to have never done before (ranging from reading a certain book or eating a certain type of food, to more extreme activities like colonic irrigation, visiting a coal mine, buying pornography). The quality can differ a bit from episode-to-episode, largely depending on the guest and on what they are doing. But in general it is a fairly fun show, both on television and the radio. It is worth listening to, especially as the current series is on iPlayer and the guests so far have been good ones.