The Best Laid Plans. Image shows from L to R: Smallbone (Ardal O'Hanlon), God (Geoffrey McGivern). Copyright: Lucky Giant
The Best Laid Plans

The Best Laid Plans

  • Radio sitcom
  • BBC Radio 4
  • 2015
  • 4 episodes (1 series)

Radio 4 sitcom by Mark Daydy about an angel tasked by God to reverse the last thirteen decades of human progression. Stars Ardal O'Hanlon, Esther Smith, Geoffrey McGivern, Mike Wozniak, Ruth Bratt and Duncan Wisbey

Key details

Genre
Sitcom
Broadcast
2015
Channel
BBC Radio 4
Episodes
4 (1 series)
Stars
Ardal O'Hanlon, Esther Smith, Geoffrey McGivern, Mike Wozniak, Ruth Bratt and Duncan Wisbey
Writer
Mark Daydy
Producer
Ben Worsfield
Company

In 1885, God nodded off. In 2014, he awoke to discover that his idiot servant, the angel Smallbone, had accidentally handed out God's plans for the next millennium when he was only meant to hand out plans for the next century.

A thousand years of leisurely human progression (we weren't even meant to have pocket calculators until 2550) has been crammed into the last 129. No wonder we're all so stressed.

Not only that, but God's blueprints should have run out in the mid-eighties - but we kept going. Humans are now inventing things God never even dreamt of: mobile phones, wireless internet and Made in Chelsea.

Smallbone is cast down to Earth in human form by God, tasked with the dauntingly vague mission of 'reversing the last thirteen decades of human progression.' The problem is, Smallbone doesn't have a clue how to even begin such a task, and even if he did, he probably wouldn't want to finish it - Smallbone loves the modern world, and is becoming distracted by everything that he's meant to destroy (especially escalators)...

But maybe there's a better way of keeping the world from racing out of control. He (just about) convinces Tanya, an activist, that he's an angel - although Smallbone is such a blundering idiot she's never quite sure. Tanya always has a cause to protest against, and Smallbone always tags along and inevitably gets roped in. And sometimes, through small victories, they change the world for the better. At least, they do if Smallbone doesn't get distracted by playing Angry Birds on Tanya's iPhone.

Additional details

Tagline
It's tough being God. Especially when your angel servant is an idiot.
Production
Studio

Broadcast details

First broadcast
Monday 5th January 2015 at 11:30am on BBC Radio 4
Most recent repeats
  • Tuesday 9th July 2019 at 4:30am on Radio 4 Extra - Episode 4
  • Monday 8th July 2019 at 4:30pm on Radio 4 Extra - Episode 4
  • Monday 8th July 2019 at 9:30am on Radio 4 Extra - Episode 4

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