Comedy Slab

This week we review It’s A Fair Cop (Series 2 Episode 1)

Former police officer and stand-up comic Alfie Moore presents this show in which he asks his audience what decisions they'd have made in a real life case that he has dealt with.

After swearing in his audience as police officers for one day only, Alfie takes them through one case as it unfolded and asks them what they'd have done in his shoes.

Along the way he spills the beans on what it's really like to be one of Britain's finest, tells us some great anecdotes about the law breakers and makers that he's come across, and gets his studio audience to divulge secrets about their own, sometimes less than strictly law-abiding lives.

Written by Alfie Moore
Produced by Alison Vernon-Smith
A BBC Radio Comedy Production.
It’s A Fair Cop is available here: https://bbc.in/3y9RFBp
 
The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.
 
Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.
 
Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review Defending The Guilty (Series 1 Episode 4)

Will Packham is a pupil barrister: smart, dedicated and good-hearted. Or at least he is for now.

Far from the glamorous world portrayed in TV, his job means dirt wages, being on call 24/7 and endless travel to far-flung municipal buildings.

His clients are at least as guilty as sin, his cynical pupil master Caroline thinks he's only good for fetching pastries and he is vying for a job with three other pupil barristers, all of whom would stab each other in the front to get it.

Will fights the urge to let his work life bleed into his personal life and he quickly discovers that winning isn't the same as being vindicated, and that everyone's guilty of something.

Written by Kieron Quirke
Produced by Georgie Fallon
Directed By Tom George
A Bigtalk Production for BBC.
Defending The Guilty is available here: https://bbc.in/3K0Refm
 
The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.
 
Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.
 
Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review It Ain’t Half Hot Mum (Series 2 Episode 1)

As World War II is coming to a close, the Royal Artillery Concert Party in India are doing their utmost to keep themselves away from the front line.

Battery Sergeant Major Williams sees his men as an embarrassment and is determined to knock them in to shape.

However, he has little support from his senior officers who enjoy the theatrical aspect of their job. Nevertheless, they are thrust in to situations which call for more than just the ability to apply greasepaint and lipstick!

Written by David Croft & Jimmy Perry
Produced by David Croft and Graeme Muir
Directed By John Kilby, Phil Bishop, Bob Spiers, David Croft and Graeme Muir
A BBC Production.
It Ain’t Half Hot Mum is available here: https://amzn.to/3jsAEKr
 
The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.
 
Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.
 
Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review George Fouracres - Black Country Gentlemon

Based on George Fouracres's 2019 Edinburgh Fringe solo debut, Gentlemon, in which the stand-up and sketch comic celebrated his Black Country roots.

This special "is loosely about changing post-industrial landscapes, pigeon flying, faith and aspirationalism" he announced on social media.

"But chiefly it's just impressions of my family, all of whom are funnier and more interesting than me."

Written by George Fouracres
Produced by Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.
George Fouracres - Black Country Gentlemon is available here: https://bbc.in/36QkVSv

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

Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.

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

This week we review The Witchfinder (Series 1 Episode 1)

It's the year of our Lord 1647 and fear of witchcraft is rife. Puritanical Christianity, deep-seated superstition and a willingness to scapegoat outsiders have created a tinderbox of suspicion in which few are safe.

A failing witchfinder, Gideon Bannister, transports a suspected witch across 1640s East Anglia to a trial that could change his fortunes forever.

His captive is the worst possible travel companion: an inquisitive, uncouth woman named Thomasine Gooch, whose ability to prick his pomposity and ask uncomfortable questions turns a straightforward journey into a life-changing ordeal.

Written by Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons and Steve Coogan
Produced by Joe Frazer
Directed by Neil Gibbons and Rob Gibbons
A Baby Cow production for BBC.
The Witchfinder is available here: https://bbc.in/3tKVn1S
 
The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.
 
Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.
 
Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review Drop The Dead Donkey (Series 1 Episode 5)

Topical sitcom set in the production office of GlobeLink News, a television news company undergoing transformation under the hand of unscrupulous new owner Sir Royston Merchant.

Having recently acquired the company, the multi-millionaire media tycoon and business tyrant orders that the staff should start taking a more sensationalist, tabloid stance in its reporting.

Yuppie Gus Hedges (who speaks in a myriad of boardroom 'buzzwords' and clichés) is in charge of the transformation. Nervous news editor George Dent is too weak to stand up to Gus so it is left to his second in command Alex, to try and stop Gus ruining the station entirely.

Written by Andy Hamilton & Guy Jenkin
Produced by Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkin and Denise O'Donoghue
Directed by Liddy Oldroyd
A Hat Trick production for Channel 4.
Drop The Dead Donkey is available here: https://bit.ly/3tqQ1ZB
 
The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.
 
Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.
 
Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review People Just Do Nothing (Series 2 Episode 1)
 
A mockumentary that goes behind the microphone of Kurupt FM - the second most popular pirate radio station in West London, receiving up to eight texts per show and playing the finest in UK garage and drum 'n' bass.

Co-founded by the MC Grindah and DJ Beats in 2002, the station has now built up a following of over a hundred people and has attracted the attention of the BBC who are making a documentary about the lives of those behind Kurupt FM.

Written by Steve Stamp, Allan Mustafa, Hugo Chegwin, Asim Chaudhry, Lily Brazier and Ben Murray
Produced by Jon Petrie, Jack Clough, Ash Atalla and Georgia Collins
Directed by Jack Clough and Andy Gradwell
A Roughtcut production for BBC.
People Just Do Nothing is available here: https://bbc.in/37ojCKx
 
The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.
 
Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.
 
Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review Conversations From A Long Marriage (Series 3 Episode 1)
 
Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam play a couple who have been married for over 40 years. Children of the Sixties, they're still free spirits, drawn together by their passion for music - and each other.

The show follows their conversations that take them from the local café, to their kitchen table, taking in her resentment of new glasses - a symbol of ageing - and fury at being lectured by the dental hygienist. He has a dodgy knee and is on statins, and when they discuss the marriage break-up of their closest friends, Sally and Peter, there's jealousy and talk of affairs. She suggests there are advantages to single beds, separate holidays and wants to go clubbing in Ibiza for her imminent 'big' birthday.

Written by Jan Etherington
Produced by Claire Jones
A BBC production.
Conversations From A Long Marriage is available here: https://bbc.in/3IP1nvF
 
The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.
 
Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.
 
Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review Vent (Series 1 Episode 1)
 
Vent is a dark radio comedy about a man recovering from a coma.

The main character, Ben doesn't get out much because he's in a coma. However, he does have an active imagination, a comfortable bed and his mum and wife at his side.

Amongst the humour we find an original comedy about how a life-threatening illness can change peoples lives and is based on the writer's own experiences when in 2001, Nigel Smith was rushed to hospital with a brain lesion so big, the radiologist thought the scan had been taken post-mortem.

Written by Nigel Smith
Produced by Gareth edwards
A BBC production.
Vent is available here: https://amzn.to/3svOEZg
 
The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.
 
Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.
 
Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.

This week we review 30 Rock (Series 1 Episode 2)
 
Liz Lemon, head writer of a sketch comedy show, has to deal with her arrogant boss and eccentric stars. Regardless, she must run the TV show successfully without losing her mind.

Created by Tina Fey, it’s based on her experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live. It takes place behind the scenes of a fictional live sketch comedy show depicted as airing on NBC.

The series' name refers to 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, the address of the now Comcast Building, where the NBC Studios are located.

The series stars Fey with a supporting cast that includes Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski.

Tonally, it uses surreal humour to parody the complex corporate structure of NBC and its then parent company General Electric and has been described as adopting the manic pacing of a live-action cartoon and has been influential in its extensive use of cutaways. It also became known for its dedication to making sets extremely elaborate, once showing a set that took three days to build for only six seconds.

Written by Tina Fey
Produced by Jeff Richmond & Jerry Kupfer
Directed By Adam Bernstein
A Broadway Video / Little Stranger Inc production for NBC Universal.
30 Rock is available here: https://bit.ly/3BJeqvL
 
The Comedy Slab Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Spotify and Youtube.
 
Subscribe for a new episode each Tuesday.
 
Get in touch - we're @ComedySlab on Twitter and ComedySlab on Facebook.