Desmond Olivier Dingle aka Patrick Barlow made a welcome return to R4 last week with his very particular take on the suffragette movement. Bravo to the producers of Woman's Hour for letting him loose on their turf with Giant Ladies That Changed the World. Aided and abetted by the hapless Raymond, Dingle assumed the role of an overbearing Edwardian patriarch outraged by the prospect of female emancipation: "You are but a rib of the man," he tells Raymond, as his querulous wife. There is something oddly endearing about these idiots, like watching your child getting everything wrong in the school nativity play.

The National Theatre of Brent, Patrick Barlow interview

Andrew Pettie meets Patrick Barlow, founder of The National Theatre of Brent and writer of the hit West End comedy The 39 Steps.

Those titans of dramatic insight, The National Theatre of Brent, Desmond Olivier Dingle and Raymond Box (aka Patrick Barlow and John Ramm) present the history of the Suffragettes in, of course, their own characteristic way, where Little Dorrit and her politician husband explore the issues before she joins the struggle. If you have not met The National Theatre of Brent before, be patient as they lumber through their introduction. The bubbling historical and linguistic stew which lies beyond is definitely worth it.