Comedy Slab

This week we review - Hebburn (Series 2 Episode 1)

Hebburn is a warm and affectionate tale of north east family life.

It tells the tale of the Pearson family and their impetuous and ambitious son, Jack.

After years living in Manchester - and secretly marrying the sweet, middle class and Jewish Sarah - he's now back Tyne-side with his new wife, a new job as the local newspaper's editor, and a baby on the way.

Jack's parents, Joe and Pauline, are devoted to their family and their hometown, and, following a stroke, Joe's now unable to work, leaving Pauline to assume the role of breadwinner - her first 'proper' job in years.

Dot, Joe's wheelchair-confined mother who likes to keep everyone 'up to speed' on her bowel movements, is now living with them, as is daughter Vicki - now, for the first time in her life, harbouring a bit of ambition and attempting to better herself.

Thankfully, Jack and Sarah have finally got their own place, away from the paper-thin walls…

Other characters include Jack's best friend, Ramsey; the 'larger than life' Big Keith; Vicki's boyfriend, pub singer Gervaise; and her best friend, Jack's obsessive ex, Denise - now pregnant, a little reluctantly, by Ramsey…

Starring Chris Ramsey, Kimberley Nixon, Vic Reeves, Gina McKee, Lisa McGrillis, Pat Dunn, Jason Cook and Steffen Peddie.

Written by Jason Cook and Graham Duff

Produced by Gill Isles

Directed by Christine Gernon and Jonathan Gershfield

A Channel X North / Baby Cow Production for BBC.

Hebburn is available here: https://bit.ly/31lHSUM

The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - Clare In The Community (Series 12 Episode 2)

Radio sitcom set around the professional and personal life of the social worker Clare Barker.

Control freak Clare likes nothing better than interfering in other people's lives on both a professional and personal basis.

Using constant professional and technical jargon while working with colleagues and at home with her partner Brian, Clare rarely finds time to solve her own problems.

She is too involved improving her client's lives and solving her friend's problems.

For Clare everything is a competition, from having the ultimate linguistic answer to an argument, to improving Brian's lifestyle and their relationship as a couple.

Through frequent 'talks' about their relationship, Clare and Brian agree that they love each other but eventually come to realise that they have little shared interests.

Clare is in her thirties, white, middle-class and heterosexual, all of which are occasional causes of discomfort to her.

Each week we join Clare in her continued struggle to control both her professional and private life. In today's Big Society there are plenty of challenges out there for an involved, caring social worker. Or even Clare.

Starring Sally Phillips, Alex Lowe, Nina Conti, Richard Lumsden, Gemma Craven, Liza Tarbuck and Sarah Kendall.

Written by Harry Venning and David Ramsden

Produced by Katie Tyrrell and Alexandra Smith

A BBC Studios production

Clare In The Community is available here: https://bbc.in/339mZO9

The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - The Mind Of Herbert Clunkerdunk (Series 1 Episodes 1 & 2)

Spencer Jones writes and stars in the The Mind Of Herbert Clunkerdunk, which sees the BAFTA and 2017 Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee as the titular Herbert Clunkerdunk.

This show is an introduction into the mind of Herbert Clunkerdunk, as he talks to us down the lens of the camera and attempts to move around his everyday life - only to be constantly interrupted by his own inventively animated imagination.

Starring Spencer Jones, Lucy Pearman, Dominic Coleman, Winona Jones and Sonny Jones

Written by Spencer Jones

Produced by David Simpson

Directed by Martin Stirling

A Tiger Aspect / Efic Production for the BBC

The Mind Of Herbert Clunkerdunk is available here: https://bbc.in/2yD6htd

The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - Listen To Les (From 18th November 1979)

If You Can’t Laugh At Your Troubles Then Laugh At His, As You ….. Listen To Les

Listen To Les was a long running BBC Radio series starring the late great Les Dawson. 

Very little information about the series exists, although it’s regularly repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

As far as we can ascertain the show ran for ten series between 1975 and 1985, although we have been unable to completely verify this.

Listen To Les was a sketch show in which Les Dawson performed various deadpan monologues and recurring character sketches.

These included “At Home with the Desponds”, “The Sophisticates” and “Cissy and Ada”

Every show would end with Dawson calling upon the studio audience to join him in a singalong with a popular or classic song, which he would deliberately play badly at the piano.

In this episode, Les presents 'Love in the Dole Queue' and meet Cosmo Smallpiece.
 
With Daphne Oxenford and Colin Edwynn.

Music by Brian Fitzgerald.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in November 1979.

Scripted and produced by James Casey.

A BBC Production

Listen To Les is available to buy here: https://bbc.in/2mGHd1M

The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

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This week we review - Brian Gulliver's Travels (Series 2, Episode 2)

A BBC Radio 4 satirical comedy series about a seasoned presenter of travel documentaries, Brian Gulliver, who finds himself in a hospital's secure unit after claiming to have experienced a succession of bizarre adventures.

Originally broadcast 21 February 2011 - 28 March 2011.

Brian Gulliver's Travels is a new adventure story from Bill Dare (producer of Spitting Image, Dead Ringers and I've Never Seen Star Wars).

The series has attracted an excellent cast led by Neil Pearson (Drop The Dead Donkey, Bridget Jones's Diary) and award winning star Mariah Gale (Ophelia in BBC TV's 2009 production of Hamlet).

We hear about Brian's travels in Gelbetia, a country run by doctors; Juradia, where every other person is a lawyer; Osminia, a land where marriage is outlawed; Sham, a country where alternative therapies abound; Erosia, which has a very different view of sexual politics; and Jampoa, where fame definitely equals fortune.

In addition to Neil Pearson and Mariah Gale, the cast also includes Tamsin Greig, Paul Bhattacharjee, Vicky Pepperdine, Phil Cornwell and Katherine Jakeways.

Written by Bill Dare

Produced by Steven Canny

A BBC Production

Brian Gulliver's Travels is available to buy here: https://adbl.co/2m501HS

The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - W1A (Series 3, Episode 1)

Ian Fletcher, the ex Head of the Olympic Deliverance Commission, takes up his next big job - the Head of Values at the BBC.

His task is to clarify, define, or re-define the core purpose of the BBC across all its functions and to position it confidently for the future, in particular for Licence Fee Renegotiation and Charter Renewal in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Reith was then; this is now.

The post is sold to Ian as a chance to influence and shape one of the great British institutions.

His job is to think Big Thoughts, but it doesn't him take long to realise that not only does he not have time to think Big Thoughts, he never has time to think any thoughts at all.

Written by John Morton

Produced by Paul Schlesinger

Directed by John Morton

A BBC Studios Production

W1A is available here: https://bbc.in/2lPwyRM

The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - This Way Up (Series 1, Episode 1)

This Way Up is a comedy about moving on, moving forward and trying to find happiness.

Written by Aisling Bea, she also stars as the charming and funny Aine, who is trying to pull her life back together after a "teeny little nervous breakdown".

Her sister Shona, played by Sharon Horgan, is increasingly worried about both her sister and her own mortality. And whether or not there's room in her apartment for her boyfriend, Vish, now that she's bought that new coffee table.

Aine works at a foreign language school and is a magnet for an eclectic collection of foreign and lost characters who are all trying to find their own hope and happiness in this messy world.

Through Aine's own experiences, and through the experiences of those around her, This Way Up explores how the pursuit of happiness differs for everybody and unveils the obstacles, some social and some mental, which come between that goal and the tougher reality of daily lives.

Happiness is a destination we all want to reach, but how we get there is never easy. This Way Up is a pin-sharp, poignant comedy which, with warmth and keen-edged wit, shows that the journey to happiness is harder for some than others.

Written by Aisling Bea

Produced by Gavin O'Grady

A Merman Production for Channel 4

This Way Up is available here: https://bit.ly/2lWeLIM

The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - The Absolutely Radio Show (Series 3, Episode 4)

The original television series, produced by Absolutely Productions, aired on Channel 4 for four series between May 1989 and February 1993.

Following an award-winning (BBC Audio Drama award for best live scripted comedy) reunion special for BBC Radio 4, the show returned for a new four-part radio series with most of the original cast in September 2015.

The new series, a co-production between Absolutely Productions Ltd and The Comedy Unit, was recorded on two evenings in August and September 2015 at The Oran Mor in Glasgow and featured the original cast, without Jack Docherty.

The first episode was broadcast on Sunday 6 September 2015.

Written by Pete Baikie, Morwenna Banks, Moray Hunter, Gordon Kennedy and John Sparkes

Produced by Gordon Kennedy & Gus Beattie

An Absolutely Production for The BBC

The Absolutely Radio Show is available here: https://bbc.in/2Z0lymM

The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - Simon Evans Goes To Market (Series 2, Episode 1)

Simon Evans sets himself the challenge to make economics funny in this comprehensive guide to global markets.

Each week, Simon takes on a different commodity market with a little help from Tim Harford, Merryn Somerset Webb and a guest expert.
By looking at four products that are so fundamental to our lives, the series brings us closer to understanding how the world economy affects us and how we affect it.

Featuring Simon Evans, Tim Harford, Merryn Somerset Webb and Timandra Harkness

Written by Simon Evans, Benjamin Partridge, Andy Wolton and Guy Venables

Produced by Tilusha Ghelani, Claire Jones and Richard Morris.

A BBC Radio Comedy production.

Simon Evans Goes To Market is available here: https://bbc.in/2KBPwFC

The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review - Lobbyland (Series 2, Episode 4)

Topical sitcom following life in Westminster through the eyes of Sam Peakes, a young political editor at a clickbait website, as she tries to make sense of the madness engulfing British politics.

Starring Ophelia Lovibond as Samantha Peakes, Charlie Higson as Tom Shriver MP, Cariad Lloyd as Mia Hamilton, Lewis Macleod as Dom Bell and Ryan Sampson as Lawrence Mills.

Written by Christopher Davies, Alistair Griggs, Jon Harvey and Sarah Dempster

Produced by Jon Harvey

A Naked Production for BBC Radio 4

Lobby Land is available here: https://bbc.in/2yNUbxB

The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.

Subscribe for a new episode each Monday.

Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.