Comedy of the Week

It’s Listeners’ Week! Host Chloe Slack (Sian Clifford) is listening to the listeners who have suggested things to listen to, including vaping, the maths of parenting and murder.

Sian Clifford stars as self-important journalist Chloe Slack in this comedy series parodying women’s current affairs and talk shows, surrounded by an ensemble cast of character comedians.

Chloe Slack - Sian Clifford

Ensemble cast:

Additional voice: Etta Treen

Created by Lorna Rose Treen and Jonathan Oldfield

Writing team:

Script Editor - Catherine Brinkworth

A DLT Entertainment Production for BBC Radio 4

Comedian and farmer Jim Smith is a proud teuchter. What is a teuchter? Well, Jim will tell you.

Me and the Farmer is a stand up show chronicling Jim's life as a working farmer in rural Perthshire. This isn't an act. By day, Jim works the land and looks after his sheep and by night he performs stand up to sold out venues across Scotland.

In each episode, Jim tells anecdotes about life on his family farm to a live audience in his nearest city of Perth. This is an honest, behind the scenes look at what it takes to be a modern farmer.

Written and Performed by Jim Smith

Having endured weeks of impossibly restrictive BBC election guidelines, Jonathan Pie is looking forward to election day and an end to all the madness. But first he has to persuade an apathetic Sam that not 'all parties are the same' and to actually go out and vote.

Written and performed by Tom Walker

Cast:

Producers …. Alison Vernon-Smith and Julian Mayers

A Yada-Yada Audio production for BBC Radio 4

The hit Radio 4 series Fags, Mags & Bags returns with a 11th series with more shop-based shenanigans and over the counter philosophy, courtesy of Ramesh Majhu and his trusty sidekick Dave.

In this fourth episode of the series, Alok-Pocalyse, Ramesh must contend with nonplussed members of the Lenzie Local Traders Association who call for an immediate meeting to try and clean up the mess being caused by Danny and Alok’s stag and hen party business.

Set in a Scots-Asian corner shop and written by and starring Donald McLeary and Sanjeev Kohli, the award winning Fags, Mags & Bags has proved a huge hit with the Radio 4 audience. This brand-new series sees a return of all the show’s regular characters, and some guest appearances along the way.

Cast

Producer: Gus Beattie for Gusman Productions

Mark Steel's In Town - Margate

“...a nice spot not vulgarised by crowds of literary people...” Oscar Wilde

In this first episode Mark visits the lovely seaside town of Margate in the Thanet district of Kent.

A magical place where T.S Eliot wrote a verse of The Wasteland, J.M.W Turner painted views of the Harbour, Tracy Emin spent her formative years and Pete Doherty has his name on a wall of fame in a cafe for eating a "mega breakfast" in under 20 minutes.

Mark visits Dreamland and its 100 year old rollercoaster, the famous Crab Museum and the historic Walpole Hotel before perfoming his show in the Cliff Bar and snooker hall under the iconic Lido Tower.

This is the 13th series of Mark's award winning show where he travels around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience.

As well as Margate, in this series, Mark be will also be popping to Stoke on Trent, Malvern, East Grinstead and Coleraine in Northern Ireland.

Written and performed by Mark Steel

Additional material by Pete Sinclair

A BBC Studios Audio production for Radio 4

In this first episode of a new series, ducks’ super vaginas and a meteorite that’s the key to how life on Earth started wow the team.

For this new series of Sue Perkins’ ARIA-winning ‘Show and Tell’ wildlife comedy, Team Nature Table have recorded at the Natural History Museum, Kew Gardens – for some botanical specials – and London Zoo.

Starting the series off, we’re at the Natural History Museum. Sue is joined by special guests: comedian Desiree Burch, science writer Jules Howard and the NHM’s curator of meteorites Dr. Natasha Almeida.

Our varied subjects include: Dogs, a meteorite that can explain how life started on Earth, Ducks’ vaginas (with Sue studying one up close courtesy of a VR headset) and moon rock.

Nature Table has a simple clear brief: to positively celebrate and promote the importance of all our planet’s wonderfully wild flora and fauna in a fun and easily grasped way... whilst at the same time having a giggle.

Hosted by: Sue Perkins

An EcoAudio certified production

In this episode, Chloe begins her journey exploring her own relationship with the toilet. From the revelations in primary school, to the best friends you make in the night club toilet, right up to what her experience is like in present day.

To help Chloe on this historical journey of the loo, she is joined by a new travel companion, the Ghost of Sir Thomas Crapper - who also bears quite a resemblance to comedian, Ed Gamble.

Written and Performed by Chloe Petts

Chris McCausland asks Donna Preston and Jon Long to take on Glenn Moore and Sara Pascoe. Sara Pascoe finds a child's description of a famous film scene impossible to decipher. The two teams must figure out what on earth is being advertised on TV, guess what famous objects or locations children are trying to describe, and work out the age of members of the audience from their voice alone.

Producer: Sasha Bobak

A BBC Studios Production

An EcoAudio certified production

A long overdue enquiry into an ill advised away-day. Episode 5 in the original series. May contain strong language.

No Room features an up to the minute take on current events, alongside character-filled sketches which brilliantly capture everything that provokes us - culture, politics, work...and other people.

Michael is famous for his Room Next Door government advisor character whose withering take downs of politicians have amassed more than 100 million views and helped keep his audience sane in fractured times.

Writer, Performer and Co-Editor: Michael Spicer

Composer and Sound Designer: Augustin Bousfield

Producer: Matt Tiller

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