Quote: italophile @ January 6 2012, 8:41 AM GMT

The random farmer was about the first and last idea that tickled me. I think they're in need of a script editor or someone to help them develop the ideas with potential and cull the stuff that isn't worth pursuing. I'd file the etiquette-obsessed hostage negotiator in the former category, for example, and the comeback king in the latter.

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Yeah, it definitely needed more script development. Such as the annoying joker getting his hand slammed repeatedly in the drawer. It nearly worked, but not quite.

Okay it's a repeat. Red Dwarf Better Than Life. More for Chris Barrie's mimicry rather than content.

I thought Isy Suttie: Pearl and Dave last night was enjoyable if unspectacular listening. Not sure I'd have been too happy to pay to watch it on stage, but it hit the spot as nice early-evening easy-listening.

Quote: KLRiley @ January 6 2012, 8:24 PM GMT

Okay it's a repeat. Red Dwarf Better Than Life. More for Chris Barrie's mimicry rather than content.

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There are a couple of 'new' episodes of Red Dwarf on some of the DVDs, read by Chris Barrie with storyboards drawn to accompany it. Series 7 has the Cat-centric episode 'The Enemy Within' and the series 1-3 remastered version entitled 'The Bodysnatcher Collection' has the 'lost' second episode entitled, funnily enough, 'Bodysnatcher' in it. Barrie reading again, with storyboards.

Dan

'I Regress' has obvious gags and frankly no real laughs, but there's something about the surreal nature of it I like. 8/10 for trying.

I know I'm about it's only fan on here, but it was good to have Clare in the Community back n the 6:30 slot. It's a good mainstream nus and bolts sitcom that never really surprises, but still provides solid laughs.

Quote: Nogget @ January 13 2012, 1:41 PM GMT

'I Regress' has obvious gags and frankly no real laughs, but there's something about the surreal nature of it I like. 8/10 for trying.

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It does have a weirdly appealing quality, despite being a bit average.

I love it, and bought two of Harrys wonderful calenders!

Also just discovered 'North by Northamptonshire' very funny!

Quote: dellas @ January 13 2012, 5:38 PM GMT

Also just discovered 'North by Northamptonshire' very funny!

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Has that got better this series? Literally nothing happened in the first series which grated a lot.

Dan

Wow everything happens there.

Mr and Mrs Smith by Will Smith. I looked to make sure it wasn't that Will Smith. It would have a lot more exciting if it had been.
I don't know why but everything at present sounds plodding and leaden. Join the dots comedy. Great cast but ...

That Mr and Mrs Smith thing (which was I think a repeat of a pilot prior to, God Help Us, a full run) was desperate, wasn't it? Women like to shop. Some men are a bit obsessive. In-laws, eh? They're a caution. Australian waitresses (upturn in tone)? Sometimes they have an upturn in tone (upturn in tone). Chris Squire having the rights to name of the band Yes? It's a bloomin' liberty.

All it needed was one funny line, one joke, and one plausible reason why the central couple were, in fact, a couple (rather than two stereotypes put together for the sole purpose of making a "funny" "situation" for a "comedy") and it might have been a funny situation comedy. As it was, it was as funny as the news about the ship capsizing, but without the timing.

Quite how you can spin more episodes out of is a mystery, as it was five minutes of writing stretched out to six times its natural length anyway. Bath...PR...Next...boutique hotel...line caught...therapy. It was a recitation of middle-class cliches, which might at best provoke a tiny moue of recognition amongst people who've been to hotels. Dreadful.

Quote: Tokyo Nambu @ January 17 2012, 10:52 PM GMT

That Mr and Mrs Smith thing (which was I think a repeat of a pilot prior to, God Help Us, a full run) was desperate, wasn't it? Women like to shop. Some men are a bit obsessive. In-laws, eh? They're a caution. Australian waitresses (upturn in tone)? Sometimes they have an upturn in tone (upturn in tone). Chris Squire having the rights to name of the band Yes? It's a bloomin' liberty.

All it needed was one funny line, one joke, and one plausible reason why the central couple were, in fact, a couple (rather than two stereotypes put together for the sole purpose of making a "funny" "situation" for a "comedy") and it might have been a funny situation comedy. As it was, it was as funny as the news about the ship capsizing, but without the timing.

Quite how you can spin more episodes out of is a mystery, as it was five minutes of writing stretched out to six times its natural length anyway. Bath...PR...Next...boutique hotel...line caught...therapy. It was a recitation of middle-class cliches, which might at best provoke a tiny moue of recognition amongst people who've been to hotels. Dreadful.

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Yeah, it wasn't very inspiring. And seemed more a imagination-free hodge-podge of other Radio 4 sitcoms of recent years, not least the Johnny Sweet sitcom Hard To Tell.

Everyone quite likes Justin. I didn't. The studio audience did. Or perhaps that was just a pack of passing hyenas.
Better than some but still forced, cliched and reliant on smut rather than good writing.
Cabin Pressure by contrast was a shining beacon of how to write something and make it funny by writing it well.

Quote: KLRiley @ January 18 2012, 9:53 PM GMT

Everyone quite likes Justin. I didn't. The studio audience did. Or perhaps that was just a pack of passing hyenas.
Better than some but still forced, cliched and reliant on smut rather than good writing.

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Dreadful. Firstly, a long litany of knob references is wildly unsuitable for the 1830 slot. Secondly, it's a round of generic "oh, those northerners are stupid" and "oh, those Catholics are hypocrites" stereotypes. Thirdly, it's the same "flashback from narrative" framing device as last night's abomination. And finally, the basic story line --- the lengths middle-class parents go through to get their children into their chosen school, even if it involves lying about religion --- is Waitrose, and dressing it up in prole accents and trappings doesn't make it any less middle-class. And, like last night, the funny had been left out: all the foregoing would be less offensive if the programme had contained a trace of humour, when in fact it was as entirely laugh-free. We know he's a DJ-manque because we're told he is: it didn't appear to figure in the programme at all.

According to the website, "Justin is a comedian who sells out gigs across the country. He has also written plays and a previous show for Radio 4. Jim Poyser is a writer and producer of enormous experience in both radio and television." You'd have thought with all that experience they could between them have cracked a joke.

Oh, and after last night's humour about the machinations of popular beat combo "Yes", tonight we got jokes founded around knowing the names of The Nolan Sisters. Now that's topical.

Good heavens. Someone even more embittered about radio comedy than myself!
Nice to meet you Toyko.