Radio Recommendations

Recently, rather than listening to music CDs on the commute to work, I've decided to pop on a couple of episodes of audio comedy instead, namely The Mighty Boosh (which I borrowed off my girlfriend), Flight Of The Conchords and The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. These choices were based on the fact that I liked their incarnations in other forms of media but as I was listening to them I got to thinking that I was probably missing out on a vast resource of brilliant comedy that I've never heard of before. Scripted comedy (or any other form of comedy really) is rarely, if ever, broadcast on the radio here so it was something that I'd never been exposed to or considered giving a chance until it began to get more and more coverage on this site.

So basically, I was wondering if anyone could recommend some of the best radio comedies for me, both past and present. I would prefer ones that have not been made into TV series (due to the fact that like the 3 I mentioned above they would just contain material that I'm already familiar with) or ones that are just the audio versions of TV series (e.g. The Smoking Room, Yes Minister).

People Like Us, On The Hour, any Mark Steel, League of Gentlemen, 15 Storeys High(watch the television show first), Chris Morris Music Show, Blue Jam(only listen to late in the night), Knowing Me Knowing You, Down The Line, Saturday Night Fry, Lee&Herring stuff, Jeremy Hardy...

I'm 2 series into Ed Reardon's week and loving it. Have started to refer to everyone younger than me as contemptuous 12 years olds. I've also got the first couple of episodes of Electric Ink which I quite like too. Does anyone have any other recommendations?

Claire in the Community.

(For more recommendations, peruse my award winning "Current radio comedy..." thread.)

Absolute Power and Old Harry's Game. In fact, anything written by Andy Hamilton if you do like OHG.

Dan

For something a bit older: Hancock's Half Hour.

For something newer: Cabin Pressure.

I've just finished listening to At Home with the Snails which I thought was bizarrely brilliant.

Quote: Nick @ June 16 2009, 1:42 PM BST

I've just finished listening to At Home with the Snails which I thought was bizarrely brilliant.

That was very good. And uniquely radio.

And don't forget Bleak Expectations. Brilliant stuff.

Everyone has recommended a lot of my favourites - Bleak Expectations, Old Harrys Game and Saturday Night Fry.
My absolute favourite is The Masterson Inheritance. You could try I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue as well. Chris Addison's Civilization was pretty good.

Count Arthur Strong's Radio show!

If you do naughty things like downloading audio comedy to listen to, you might want to search for 'slimoo'.

Hooray, a convert to audio comedy! There's lots of great stuff for you to discover. Here's some of my favourites, pretty much all of which someone else has mentioned above (which shows some consensus):

Bleak Expectations - very unique, and genuinely brilliant. I'll guarantee you'll like this.

That Mitchell and Webb Sound - the best radio sketch show (there is a slight overlap with the TV show, but lots of non-crossover stuff too)

All Bar Luke - a really subtle but clever show by Tim Key

Ed Reardon's Week - which you've already mentioned.

The Now Show - topical satire.

Cabin Pressure - silly fun in the air.

Old Harry's Game - sitcom set in hell.

Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! - another unique sitcom. I'm hoping the plans for this to transfer to TV will happen so everyone can discover it, but the audio shows will always probably be the best.

Double Science - another 'silly' sitcom. This one set in a school.

Hut 33 - wartime laughs.

Mark Steel's In Town - recent stand-up series that was lovely.

On The Blog - I've only just discovered this sitcom recently myself.

The Secret World - a new impressions show (currently on repeat). See also Dead Ringers for great archive laughs.

Think The Unthinkable - business-based sitcom.

15 Minute Musical - clever musical parodies.

Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off - sitcom starring Marcus Brigstocke as an idiot on his world travels.

Bet I've forgotten some... but that's probably a good start. We've got guides to many of these shows on our website already. You can access them via our list of radio comedies

Quote: SillyBry @ June 17 2009, 6:58 AM BST

My absolute favourite is The Masterson Inheritance.

My God! Someone else who has heard of and enjoyed this! :)

The 15 minute musicals were very good - I'd forgotten about them.
Anything that Mark Steel has done is always pretty good too.
Arthur Smith's Arturart was good.

The Masterson Inheritance is wonderful - it always makes me smile when you hear Lee giggling when someone says something particularly funny. It's a bad thing to listen to in public as it does make me giggle!

Echo Mark's view on All Bar Luke and (brace yourself chip!) On The Blog

Also, if you like sport, Fighting Talk (podcast from Radio FiveLive) is the funniest thing on the radio.

Dan

Quote: Mark @ June 18 2009, 12:09 AM BST

Think The Unthinkable - business-based sitcom.

Good show.

Quote: swerytd @ June 18 2009, 9:54 AM BST

and (brace yourself chip!) On The Blog

I'm permanently braced on this site!