"Topical" Comedy on Radio 4

[Silverage]

Chairman’s script?

[Riley Blue]

Silverage said:

Chairman’s script?

Four writers to compile a handful of questions?

[Silverage]

I’ve not listened to it in a long time, but are there not a lot of witty asides too?

[nonsequitur]

Silverage said:

I’ve not listened to it in a long time, but are there not a lot of witty asides too?

According to an autobiography of a comedian I once read, every joke, pun, act, skit ,sketch and move is rehearsed to the Nth degree.

[RizzoTheRat]

nonsequitur said:

According to an autobiography of a comedian I once read, every joke, pun, act, skit ,sketch and move is rehearsed to the Nth degree.

Probably varies for different people. We went to a recording of Argumental (topical comedy thing on Dave some years ago) and we could see the teleprompt. The comedians all did a brief monologue bit. Jimmy Carr had his entire piece written out word for word, while Marcus Brigstock had half a dozen lines of topic headings.


Re. the news quiz, the entire chairmans piece is scripted, plus there's a warm up guy for the live audience, so quite a lot to be written. Plus a half hour episode is a an hour or more of recording. The Mock the Week we watched the other day was was over 2 hours long. Dunno if the panellist write all their own stuff or have assistance, but they've obviously prepared material for the given questions, although there is quite a lot of off the cuff stuff too.

[manwithbeard]

For all those disenchanted with "Topical" comedy, the Bard of Berkhamsted can be listened to on YouTube:

Series 1-13 of Ed Reardon's Week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ3DgKQhp8U&li...

It also looks as if Series 14 will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 starting 08 June:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000wrl0

[Riley Blue]

RizzoTheRat said:

nonsequitur said:

According to an autobiography of a comedian I once read, every joke, pun, act, skit ,sketch and move is rehearsed to the Nth degree.

Probably varies for different people. We went to a recording of Argumental (topical comedy thing on Dave some years ago) and we could see the teleprompt. The comedians all did a brief monologue bit. Jimmy Carr had his entire piece written out word for word, while Marcus Brigstock had half a dozen lines of topic headings.


Re. the news quiz, the entire chairmans piece is scripted, plus there's a warm up guy for the live audience, so quite a lot to be written. Plus a half hour episode is a an hour or more of recording. The Mock the Week we watched the other day was was over 2 hours long. Dunno if the panellist write all their own stuff or have assistance, but they've obviously prepared material for the given questions, although there is quite a lot of off the cuff stuff too.

'40 Years of The News Quiz' can be found on BBC Sounds. Alan Coren, Clive James and so on show how far the programme has plummeted.

[Doofus]

manwithbeard said:

For all those disenchanted with "Topical" comedy, the Bard of Berkhamsted can be listened to on YouTube:

Series 1-13 of Ed Reardon's Week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ3DgKQhp8U&li...

It also looks as if Series 14 will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 starting 08 June:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000wrl0

My wife likes Ed Reardon. It just depresses me.

[Doofus]

I've just heard Elvis McGonagall. Very funny.

[Steamer]

Bugger.

Bit of late news to me - while re-listening to some classic 'Ed Reardon's Week...

...only to find one of the episodes being followed by the announcement Andrew Nickolds passed away on the 20th Dec 2022.

Very sad to hear this. So I'm assuming Ed has penned his last episode?

[Riley Blue]

Steamer said:

Bugger.

Bit of late news to me - while re-listening to some classic 'Ed Reardon's Week...

...only to find one of the episodes being followed by the announcement Andrew Nickolds passed away on the 20th Dec 2022.

Very sad to hear this. So I'm assuming Ed has penned his last episode?

Sad news, it has always been one of my 'mustn't miss' series, the other being 'Cabin Pressure' (now also being repeated).