Party. Image shows from L to R: Simon (Tom Basden), Phoebe (Katy Wix), Mel (Anna Crilly), Duncan (Tim Key), Jared (Jonny Sweet). Copyright: BBC
Party

Party

  • Radio sitcom
  • BBC Radio 4
  • 2010 - 2018
  • 13 episodes (3 series)

Political satire about five young adults who want to change the world but have no idea how, and little idea why. Stars Tom Basden, Tim Key, Jonny Sweet, Anna Crilly and Katy Wix

Press clippings

BBC Radio reveals Christmas 2018 comedy highlights

BBC Radio has revealed its 2018 Christmas comedy highlights. The Shuttleworths and Party will return, there's the 50th episode of Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show!, and more.

British Comedy Guide, 22nd November 2018

Radio 4 sitcom Party to return for one-off special

Party, the Radio 4 sitcom about political students starring Tom Basden, Anna Crilly, Tim Key, Jonny Sweet and Katy Wix, is to return for a one-off special focusing on Donald Trump.

British Comedy Guide, 9th November 2018

The Best Politically-Powered Comedies

What is it about the violently egotistical, easily corrupted, self-doubt-riddled nature of your typical politician that makes them such a perfect target for comedy?

BBC, 1st September 2018

Tom Basden's R4 comedy adapted for small screen

Radio 4's political sitcom Party is being adapted for television.

Chortle, 8th January 2014

Radio weekly #16 - Party

This week saw the return of the world's least successful political party - and I'm not talking about the Lib Dems' party conference...

Ian Wolf, Giggle Beats, 24th September 2012

BBC Radio 4 orders a third series of Party

Party, Tom Basden's hit sitcom about a group of political students, has been given a third series by Radio 4.

British Comedy Guide, 20th August 2012

I've been to a couple of rather wonderful recordings of Radio 4 comedy recently. First up was the live recording of two episodes - 1 and 3 oddly - of Party, a four-part sitcom version of Tom Basden's play that I saw up in Edinburgh (ok, and down in London) in which five young and essentially clueless idealists set up a political party in its self-appointed leader's shed (or summerhouse, as he insists). It's broader than the theatre version, certainly, but the writing's still wonderful, and the performances still pitch perfect. Jonny Sweet is especially brilliant as that disputed leader, a campus Clegg/Cameron/Blair-like lothario; and Tim Key's immaculate timing is given a great showcase as the newest member of the party, drafted in because he new dad owns a print shop (though he thinks he's there for another reason entirely).

Anna Lowman, , 16th March 2010

Radio Review: Party

Do we really need another political sitcom? Yes, on the evidence of Radio 4's Party, says Elisabeth Mahoney.

Elisabeth Mahoney, The Guardian, 11th March 2010

Comedy Review: Party

There are pitfalls when comedians make theatre. Sometimes they strive too hard to be serious; sometimes (judging by the reviews of last summer's The School for Scandal), they don't strive hard enough. The 2007 If.Comedy award winner for best newcomer, Tom Basden, sweeps all such considerations aside with his new play about student politics, an idiosyncratic and highly enjoyable piece performed beautifully by a crack cast of upcoming comics.

Brian Logan, The Guardian, 11th March 2010

Setting a sitcom in the world of British politics is a difficult business - you're likely to find yourself tripping over other heavyweights of the genre such as Yes Minister and The Thick of It, for one thing; and will have to work hard to keep it from slipping into chortle-chortle-aren't-politicians-stupid clichés, for another. But blow me if writer Tom Basden hasn't pulled it off with this four-part politcom following a group of young, woolly-headed idealists as they attempt to set up a new political party. Neither Right- nor Left-wing, they prefer to see themselves as "inside the plane".

Gillian Reynolds, The Telegraph, 10th March 2010

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