Radio comedy
There was a post a few days ago bemoaning the rubbish on the idot lantern. I concur - but then I haven't got round to getting one of those new fangled digital doowackies yet so maybe I'm missing out on some great stuff on ITV seven, or BBC living choice 2.
So instead I seek solace in Radio 4, the comedy in particular. The new series of Bleak Expectations started last week and continues on thursday at 6.30pm. It's a spoof period drama and it is the funniest thing on any radio or TV channel anywhere.
Until recently I have been enjoying the latest seris of Count Arthur Strong on Radio 4 and I haven't missed an episode of The Now Show in a very long while - to think we once thought Newman and Baddeil were the funny ones in the Mary Whitehouse Experience. How wrong we were.
With Just a Minute still gracing the airwaves and as funny as ever, plus a new series of Mark Watson's Radio 4 show starting on Wednesday, why bother turning the telly on at all?
Also if anyone else is similarly obsessed with Radio 4 comedy shows then the nice chaps on this messageboard have been busy with their tape recorders for years making sure you can catch up on some classics. Not sure how legal it is but it's the BBC, they just want us all to be happy right?
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Nice!
I'd also suggest UK Nova is well worth a look if you're after this kind of stuff. They try to ensure that anything commercially available is not on there, so while it's not exactly clean as a whistle, it's not completely naughty.
Worth £12 a month
Couldn't agree more, Niks.
There are a lot of sticks out there with which to beat the BBC (news coverage, almost all weekend viewing) but I happily pay the licence fee knowing that I'm going to get Just a Minute (and repeats of ISIHAC) a few times a year.
That said, Count Arthur Strong loses me. I guess it comes down to what you dig and what you don't but I've never really got it. There was a fairly hit-and-miss sitcom on a few months back about two incompetent science teachers that made me laugh more than Count Arthur.
The Count
He does appear to be a very marmite sort of person. My brother excitedly played his alternative Christmas message to the family on Christmas Day but was soon forced to turn it off or be stoned to death with cracker toys and party poppers from the unimpressed throng. I think he's great though, although not quite as good John Shuttleworth who is clealry a big inspiration for the character.
I reckon you'd love BBC7
No worries if you don't have a digital doowacky, check out their listen again service. They concentrate on drama and comedy (with a light smattering of children's content)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/ and pick a day, any day. mornings tend to be more drama, but afternoons and evenings you usually get lots of lovely comedy.
Star Terk : To Bald-ly Go
This was a sketch show from 1987 and 1989 written by Terry Ravenscroft and starring Christopher Godwin, Jeffrey Holland, Susie Blake and Fred Harris. Episodes started with a spoof star trek episode but this was interrupted each week by a BBC radio sketch show.
There is a 15-minute segment here
http://razzamatazz.plant-biology.com/starterk.htm