Comedy of the Week

Ivo Graham brings 2 more celebrity guests to Radio 4, to tell us about their obsessions.

Comedian Fatiha-El Ghorri and Paul Gorton of the hit BBC show 'The Traitors' join Ivo this week. Fatiha El-Ghorri is obsessed with trainers, and judges the audience on theirs while Paul details the hours he spends in his gaming room. Ivo also delves into the audience to find out what their obsessions are, and finally Ivo is joined by a Very Obsessed Person, or 'VOP'. This week, Ailish Morrison comes on to tell us about her unexpected twin passions of cheerleading and Lord of the Rings.

Hosted by Ivo Graham

Written by Ivo Graham and Zoe Tomalin

Additional Material by Cody Dahler, Christina Riggs and Peter Tellouche

Recorded at the Marylebone Theatre by Duncan Hannant

Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies, a BBC Studios Audio production for Radio 4

An EcoAudio certified production

In the first of two US election specials Pie (Tom Walker) is tackling the thorny issue of democracy and is quickly derailed. As he takes his usual balanced (not) approach to the US presidential candidates Jules (Lucy Pearman) dangles a juicy carrot. There’s a big gig in the offing; if only he can stop ranting about one of the candidates. Can you guess which one?

Written and performed by Tom Walker.

Jules …. Lucy Pearman.

This show was first broadcast in June 2023, as Janey faced a terminal cancer diagnosis.

Last week, Janey revealed she is now receiving end-of-life care.

This is another chance to hear Janey's powerful personal story of strength and survival, all told in her brutally honest, brutally funny signature style.

In this episode, Janey does what she’s always done: turning her own dark and difficult experiences into laugher, as she paints a vivid picture of life in the East End of Glasgow in the 60s, and recounts a childhood steeped in poverty and abuse. As she faces her own mortality, she and daughter Ashley Storrie talk, laugh and cry as they unpick some of the experiences she shares onstage.

Relentlessly authentic, she's also had to face up to her own mistakes - taking responsibility and apologising both publicly and onstage, as well as sharing the shame of being ‘cancelled’ and the very dark place that took her to.

Then, just months later…. the hand grenade of a cancer diagnosis forced her to start fighting for her life.

Now, after finally admitting that after everything she’s been through in life, maybe she‘s not “fine”, and with a terminal diagnosis, she’s submitted to the ultimate ‘C bomb' for many men and women of her generation - counselling.

And as a result of this insight, she’s more hilarious and compelling onstage than ever.

Janey’s experienced a life of extremes but has come out the other side with rare insight, still able to make light of all its trials and tribulations in her signature dark and uncompromising style.

Recorded live in front of an audience in her hometown, Glasgow.

A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are on a mission from Beer to Eternity, in this warm and witty new podcast that celebrates new and half-remembered trivia as they try to find entertaining links between random places, people and things.

Could you make your way from The Starship Enterprise to the Air Fryer, armed only with A-Level Economics and a Geography degree? Hugh Dennis is going to have to. While Steve Punt will have to pick his way across Africa, to find what links Machiavelli and Madagascar. Across the series, they’ll be joined by guests including Ken Cheng, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Isy Suttie and Marcus Brigstocke, on a scenic route which takes in Shampoo, The Gruffalo, Watford Gap Services and Yoghurt.

Written and hosted by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis

A Listen Production for BBC Radio 4

Comedian and computer scientist Olga Koch tries to explain beliefs and superstitions to her sassy and ultra-rational digital assistant Algo. Can you ever truly “get” Madonna? (The pop icon or the mother of Jesus).

Performed by Olga Koch

Featuring Rajiv Karia as Algo

Additional material from Rajiv Karia, Peter Tellouche and Christina Riggs

Produced by Benjamin Sutton

It's their big break, and the Lovely Boys are determined to be successful, no matter what it takes. Expect life coaching and alpha instructions from Branch Power, an Uber ride from the greatest sideman in videogame history, and Benny's fashion choices pushing Willy one step too far.

Written and performed by Ben Cohen and Will Robbins

Sound Design: Peter Duffy

A BBC Studios Audio Production for Radio 4.

Stand-up comedian Aurie Styla, a 90s nerd, takes an autobiographical journey through technology history.

We begin in the early 90s, with the tinny sound of the Nintendo Game Boy and his first 13-inch television which only worked if asked very nicely, and he re-wired to show all the channels available - in total, four.

A technology lover since those days of that 13-inch TV and his first console, the Sega Master System – featuring ‘Alex Kidd In Miracle World’, the most frustrating video game of all time – Aurie has seen technology transform in a manner that would have been hard to believe in the 90s.

This show charts his personal relationship with machines, looking at the past (computer games that you had to load from cassette tapes), the present (houses that are lit and warmed via apps on your phone, cars that drive themselves without you) and the future (AIs that tell you how to dress and what to eat for dinner, and superior intelligences that command your every move whether you want to object or not).

Technology has moved on rapidly, from being a fun sideshow to the bedrock of our understanding of human life. Aurie guides us through this landscape with infectious wit, taking time to remember the awkward interface of MSN Messenger while also negotiating the modern culture of having to check with a virtual assistant before you turn your lights off. A warm, human show about the way the world has become less and less warm and human, celebrating the march of tech while being appropriately terrified of it.

An Impatient production for BBC Radio 4