Write for Recorded For Training Purposes

Series four will, like series three, be written by a mix of a) some people who have written on previous series and b) everyone else in the world.

This is a first-rate sketch show lampooning the mysteries of modern communication. I discovered this last by accident and recommend it heartily. The standard of both material and performance is high and the production (by Ed Morrish) is pin sharp. The only hazard of listening (but a nice one) is that it goes out just before Today in Parliament and so makes that sound unexpectedly hilarious.

Ah, the iPlayer. People who don't have computers are driven mad by its very mention. But so, according to Recorded for Training Purposes, a brilliant radio comedy series on Radio 4 late on Thursday nights, are many others. It's like saying "your programme's in the oven," they said, and why, when you can record TV and there are so many repeats anyway, was there all this iPlayer stuff all the time, "What do you want, an alarm call or something?" They also made fun of phone-ins, fatuous surveys which get onto the news, the ridiculous search for mad metaphors to popularise broadcast science. I knew I liked this show when they started with this week's National Sudoku Numbers. It's bold to make fun of the BBC when you're on it, but very welcome.