Comedy of the Week

Give us what we want, or else! It’s how small children approach Halloween, and increasingly how everyone else approaches politics - with menace, ultimatums and threats.

Comedian Matt Forde convenes a special Halloween Focus Group in front of a live theatre audience and asks if politics is now just one long game of Trick-or-Treat.

Joining him to make idle threats and scare the locals are The Spectator’s Isabel Hardman, Malawian-born stand-up Daliso Chaponda and MP Jess Phillips. Together they work out who’s knocking, what they’re after, and whether it’s ever wise to hide behind the sofa and pretend you’re not in.

Written and performed by Matt Forde

In this episode we meet a bipedal hominin with a gambling problem, argue with a conspiracy-theorist ostracod and discover the best use for our surprising grip strength.

Randy Feltface’s Human Handbook is a groundbreaking four-part stand-up series where Randy fixes his ping-pong ball gaze upon the evolutionary journey of Earth’s most baffling beings

Randy Feltface has been seen on Netflix, ABC, NBC, and has a huge and devoted following across the globe (1m+ social media followers, 1.6m TikTok followers, 833k subscribers, 79m YouTube views). His hour-long specials are YouTube cult classics, his world tours are sold out sensations, and he's the only Radio 4 presenter to be entirely made of felt.

With Alex Papps and Chiara Goldsmith

Produced and directed by David Tyler

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4

Join Russell Kane as he rummages through nature’s police files, potentially exposing that glossy sinister feathered felon: the Crow.

Helping Russell sort the caw-caws from the jackdaws, are comedian Desiree Burch and the Natural History Museum’s Principal Curator of Birds, Dr. Alex Bond.

Are Crows ‘Bad News with Wings’ or ‘Feathered Fantastics’? Listen with your ears to find out.

Written by: Eve Delaney, Ruth Huskisson and Christina Riggs.

Additional material: Angela Channell and Catherine Beazley.

Researcher: Catherine Beazley

Sound Recordist: Gareth Wood

Digital Editor: Jerry Peal

Production Coordinator: Liz Tuohy

Executive Producer: Paul Smith

Producer: Simon Nicholls

Evil Animals with Russell Kane is a BBC Studios Production for BBC Sounds.

In this episode, the 2005 General Election inspires Glenn to stand in his school’s own mock election, as the candidate with the most unlikely set of policies ever.

Perhaps best-known for his outrageously brilliant one-liners on Mock The Week, Glenn delivers a tale of comic mishaps and extraordinary scenes interwoven with a big event in history – and looks back through his almanac to find out other strange connections to the day as well.

Written by Glenn with additional material by Katie Storey (Have I Got News For You, Mock The Week, The Last Leg) and produced and directed by David Tyler (Cabin Pressure, Armando Iannucci’s Charm Offensive, and many more).

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4

Paul Merton interviews a variety of guests from the world of comedy and entertainment to find out what they would send to Room 101.

Kicking off the series, Miles Jupp attempts to banish touchscreens, people who take the aisle seat on a train when the window seat is available, and people who do not park well.

To hear more episodes from this series, search "Room 101" on BBC Sounds.

Additional material by John Irwin and Suki Webster

Geoff Norcott examines modern masculinity in this stand-up series for Radio 4, by creating the safe space of a working men’s club so he can speak freely about the problems men are facing and how we might go about fixing them in a way that benefits everyone.

This week, Geoff looks at men’s reluctance to put on sunscreen. Why not take a simple, basic precaution against the hottest and largest thing in the entire solar system? Vanity? Bravado? Or something else? With the help of his studio audience, Geoff looks at whether this is connected to men’s reluctance to seek medical advice and their habit of dying early.

Written and presented by Geoff Norcott

Recorded by Richard Biddulph

Production manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Laura Smyth speaks to celebrity guests to find out about the mothers who made them.

This week Laura is joined by comedians Sara Barron and Nish Kumar and boy is it the battle of the big personality mums! We hear all about Sara’s mum’s main character energy and her mantra ‘we’re not like other girls’. We learn about Nish’s mum leading her entire family to England aged just 15, and the mic drop way in which she introduces herself to strangers. And we conclude that maybe it makes total sense for all mothers to be a little bit mad?

Producer: Sasha Bobak

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.

Omid Djalili explores a world that's louder, angrier, and stranger than ever.

Who gets to decide who we are before we've even opened our mouths? Omid Djalili examines the stereotypes that shape our lives - from growing up as the son of Iranian immigrants to the labels, assumptions and snap judgements we all make about each other. Through stand-up, audience contributions and personal stories, he asks whether comedy can break through prejudice and remind us that people are always more complicated than the boxes we put them in.

This is the first episode of the Stand-Up Specials series Omid Djalili: Namaste. To hear more episodes, search "Stand-Up Specials" on BBC Sounds.

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.

In this episode we hear Jessie Cave’s word for letting your kids explore their canine side, Armando Iannucci's description for excessive false modesty, and Chloe Petts’s coinage for when you need something but you don't want to be a bother.

Ever struggled to find the right word for a feeling or sensation? Unspeakable sees comedian Phil Wang and lexicographer Susie Dent invite celebrity guests to invent new linguistic creations, to solve those all too relatable moments when we're lost for words.

Hosts: Phil Wang and Susie Dent

A Brown Bred production for BBC Radio 4

The multi-award-winning satire returns, as Jon Holmes mashes up news with pop-culture into a current affairs comedy concept album. This week - Andy Burnham embarks on his Odyssey, and Harry and Meghan's dog barks at The Gentlemen on Netflix.

To hear more episode from this series, search "The Skewer" on BBC Sounds.

Producer: Jon Holmes