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March 28, 2024, 09:08:54 PM

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Terrible Radio Comedy

Started by Bacon, March 17, 2016, 08:59:18 PM

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Bacon

I found myself locked in a conversation with some proper mad twats about some fucking shit things the other day and when the subject quickly turned to radio, I realised I was embarrassingly uneducated. Not so much panel shows, but sitcoms, I didn't have a clue what they were on about. Recent programmes would be good, I'd like to discover something along the lines of Mrs Brown's Boys so I can really get to grips with pretending to be above that sort of thing.

Mark Steels Stockbroker

Whenever the Today programme have to do a trailer for a new Radio 4 comedy I have to switch off for a few seconds to avoid (1) the excruciating trailer itself and then (2) the embarrassed awkwardness of the presenters.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Bacon on March 17, 2016, 08:59:18 PM
I found myself locked in a conversation with some proper mad twats about some fucking shit things the other day and when the subject quickly turned to radio, I realised I was embarrassingly uneducated. Not so much panel shows, but sitcoms, I didn't have a clue what they were on about. Recent programmes would be good, I'd like to discover something along the lines of Mrs Brown's Boys so I can really get to grips with pretending to be above that sort of thing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/programmes/genres/comedy/player/episodes

Milverton

The Now Show is the pinnacle of shit radio comedy. Nothing comes close.

Beyond that I'd nominate any of those middle class radio sitcoms, particularly After Henry, which inexplicably still gets regular run outs on R4X. Prunella Scales with real voice, and Fawlty Towers deaf aid woman Joan Sanderson as her mother. I can't get to radio quick enough to turn it off.

Danger Man

Quote from: Bacon on March 17, 2016, 08:59:18 PM
Recent programmes would be good, I'd like to discover something along the lines of Mrs Brown's Boys so I can really get to grips with pretending to be above that sort of thing.

Superb timing. This started yesterday and it is a load of shite. It's called 'Hal'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04p5vl1

QuoteComedian Hal Cruttenden stars and co-writes a new four-part sitcom about a stay at home father who is having a mid-life crisis. Hal stars as himself, married to Sam and father to two lovely girls. The problem is that, as Sam's career blossoms internationally and daughters Lilly and Molly grow up and are no longer dependent on their loving and caring father, Hal feels restless.

Having decided to give up his career and be a House Husband many years ago, the appeal of being around his family more is wearing thin.

So, with the help of his ever unreliable mates Doug, Fergus and Barry, Hal decides to try new things in his life. But, inevitably, things don't go to plan!

Further challenges come from Hal's now deceased father, who was a true adventurer and all-round hero (something his son sadly is not) and is starting to appear to Hal at the most inopportune times to give unwelcome advice.

So, with the help of his ever unreliable mates Doug, Fergus and Barry, Hal decides to try new things in his life. But, inevitably, things don't go to plan.

No, I haven't messed up the cut and paste, the show is so crap that the BBC website repeats bits of the text twice.

gatchamandave

I listened to it last night in horrified fascination. The first problem is that Hal sounds like the best Tony Blair impersonator going, the same adenoidal earnestness dripping from every sentence. His initial problem is that his wife wants a vacation in Rome, whilst he wants it in Little Italy in New York, a dilemma that we've all faced, I'm sure. So of course, he then has that horrible angst that every husband faces, that the wife brings in all the money, and all he does is spend it.

Fergus, played by Ed Byrne, is an Irish private detective, I think, with a side line in selling infra red binoculars which, for no readily explained reason the pair of them test out in proximity to Hal' s daughters primary school. So they get spotted and mistaken for paedos. It could happen to anyone.

One of the other mates is a serial shagger, and the other is a Northener, so we get the twat playing him do his best Jimmy Nail. Central plot propellant is that Hal' s been asked to the school to give a presentation on what he does for a living, so he's got to disguise that he's a house husband, because that would be so demeaning for him, whilst also avoiding being identified as a possible kiddy fiddler.

I'm not at all sure why this was even written. Nothing about it suggests that anyone involved in it has ever been a house husband, or had any real family. The daughters are written in the usual BBC default position of children in sit com's where they are supposedly more clued in about what's going on in the real world than their parents, so they constantly speak in an exasperated tone rendering them completely indistinguishable. They aren't lovely, they are obnoxious. The wife is a passing disembodied voice there to tell Hal that he's wonderful and not to forget to pick up the Taramasalatta for tonight. The dead dad is a voice synthesizer, I kid you not.

It's like Derek crossed with a more self indulgent episode of Outnumbered, pure contrivance mixed with unrealistic characters resembling no one in the real world and the latter of which I suspect it's being lined up to replace with an initial try out on the radio.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Danger Man on March 18, 2016, 09:49:55 AM
Superb timing. This started yesterday and it is a load of shite. It's called 'Hal'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04p5vl1

No, I haven't messed up the cut and paste, the show is so crap that the BBC website repeats bits of the text twice.

It's very hard to define good timing - this series was first broadcast in 2014.

Black_Bart

QuoteThe Now Show is the pinnacle of shit radio comedy. Nothing comes close

It's a sign of how I've mellowed over the years, I can actually listen to all of the Now Show, without wanting to kill any of it's performers. Well, Mitch Benn could suffer  a bit.

This is pretty awful, they can't even fill a whole half hour...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0738kr6

and following it...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03wq2j5

Just imagine that tweet speak was around in the olden days... No, go on...

Danger Man

Your review is too kind.

He wants a holiday in New York. She wants one in Rome. But the whole thing is cancelled because she has to pop over to Tokyo on business. That old chestnut.

I liked the subtle way the characters were introduced.
"You've got one kid"
"What do you mean? I've got three kids"
"Yeah but two are from her previous marriage"
"Oh yeah, I see what you mean"

Plot, characterisation and comedy were so thin that the whole thing felt like words being read aloud by some people.

Danger Man

Quote from: Ignatius_S on March 18, 2016, 11:35:21 AM
It's very hard to define good timing - this series was first broadcast in 2014.



Still good timing in that it's on the radio now.

Bacon

This is brilliant, it sounds like a first time read through, I can almost see the actors' fingers scanning the lines on the page.

'Oh Dad you've made the toilet stink again!'
'Mum, you need gas masks to go in there'

Thanks for the recommendation.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Danger Man on March 18, 2016, 11:40:52 AM...Still good timing in that it's on the radio now.

Although that's true, if one wanted terrible comedy that's currently being repeated, then it's hard to outdo Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting. Truly awful.

great_badir

Quote from: gatchamandave on March 18, 2016, 11:30:40 AM
I listened to it last night in horrified fascination. The first problem is that Hal sounds like the best Tony Blair impersonator going, the same adenoidal earnestness dripping from every sentence. His initial problem is that his wife wants a vacation in Rome, whilst he wants it in Little Italy in New York, a dilemma that we've all faced, I'm sure. So of course, he then has that horrible angst that every husband faces, that the wife brings in all the money, and all he does is spend it.

Fergus, played by Ed Byrne, is an Irish private detective, I think, with a side line in selling infra red binoculars which, for no readily explained reason the pair of them test out in proximity to Hal' s daughters primary school. So they get spotted and mistaken for paedos. It could happen to anyone.

One of the other mates is a serial shagger, and the other is a Northener, so we get the twat playing him do his best Jimmy Nail. Central plot propellant is that Hal' s been asked to the school to give a presentation on what he does for a living, so he's got to disguise that he's a house husband, because that would be so demeaning for him, whilst also avoiding being identified as a possible kiddy fiddler.

I'm not at all sure why this was even written. Nothing about it suggests that anyone involved in it has ever been a house husband, or had any real family. The daughters are written in the usual BBC default position of children in sit com's where they are supposedly more clued in about what's going on in the real world than their parents, so they constantly speak in an exasperated tone rendering them completely indistinguishable. They aren't lovely, they are obnoxious. The wife is a passing disembodied voice there to tell Hal that he's wonderful and not to forget to pick up the Taramasalatta for tonight. The dead dad is a voice synthesizer, I kid you not.

It's like Derek crossed with a more self indulgent episode of Outnumbered, pure contrivance mixed with unrealistic characters resembling no one in the real world and the latter of which I suspect it's being lined up to replace with an initial try out on the radio.

Are there endless "jokes" about him sounding a bit like Tony Blair, and constantly telling people that he's definitely not gay?


Quote from: Ignatius_S on March 18, 2016, 11:51:15 AM
Although that's true, if one wanted terrible comedy that's currently being repeated, then it's hard to outdo Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting. Truly awful.

Totally agree with you there (in fact I never thought she was that good or funny a comedian full stop), but I always seemed to be the only one.  I wonder how much of it was/is "awwww, but she died a horrible protracted death quite young" and how much was genuine.

Phil_A

I always found Absolute Power completely mystifying. A satirical comedy without a single joke or even a passably funny line. Utter waste of Stephen Fry and John Bird.

"Trodd en Bratt say 'Well Done You'" is peerlessly awful. Only Small Wonder comes close, but that's 30 years old and on the TV, so doesn't count.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0480h31

Milverton

Quote from: Phil_A on March 18, 2016, 02:38:54 PM
I always found Absolute Power completely mystifying. A satirical comedy without a single joke or even a passably funny line. Utter waste of Stephen Fry and John Bird.

Good choice. Not a laugh in it.

Ditto the Linda Smith vehicle. I rather liked her actually, and she was often excellent on Just A Minute.

Ed Reardon's Week has gone off the boil a bit since John Fortune died, too.

Consignia

Quote from: Danger Man on March 18, 2016, 09:49:55 AM
Superb timing. This started yesterday and it is a load of shite. It's called 'Hal'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04p5vl1


Man, I listened to that last night, and it was absolutely dreadful. Switching onto to Radio 4 at 6.30 is always a gamble of how shit is this going to be, ranging "very" to "oh, christ why", but this is easily the worst. For a station that broadcasts Ed Reardon's Week and Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang-Ups, it's quite an achievement.

neveragain

Talking of the now, I like Rebecca Front's stuff[nb]That was actually a while back[/nb] and the panel shows (silly ones, not 'topical') - plus Ed Reardon always has some clever lines or situations, and John Finnemore was okay the first few times - but most of the comedy either washes over you without a laugh or is so smug it's near intolerable.
Ooh, I'm just going to ring home to me daft Northern parents!
Ooh, isn't it awful being privileged!
Or that current Susan Calman one where she just describes her day out, in a fairly dull manner. The audience laugh at nothing half the time.

I know the guy who played the Geordie in that Hal thing, and he's quite a twat. Been doing the same miniscule, unfunny stand-up act for five or six y

Consignia

Quote from: neveragain on March 18, 2016, 04:25:45 PM
...John Finnemore was okay the first few times.


I'm afraid I quite like Finnemore's work. It can be quite hit and miss, but when it hits it's gold.

neveragain

ears.

Yes, I quite liked it too. Just being cynical for the thread really. To be honest, I enjoy a bath at 6.30 alongside the comedy/Archers/start of Front Row, but I wouldn't admit that here!

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: David Pielingtonburygrot on March 18, 2016, 03:06:59 PM
"Trodd en Bratt say 'Well Done You'" is peerlessly awful. Only Small Wonder comes close, but that's 30 years old and on the TV, so doesn't count.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0480h31

That was one of the least funny things I've ever heard on the radio under the guise of comedy. Just a horrible waste of time from everyone involved. It's one of those things that makes me wonder how they could have listened to it and thought "yes, this is good, and people will like it".

Quote from: Phil_A on March 18, 2016, 02:38:54 PM
I always found Absolute Power completely mystifying. A satirical comedy without a single joke or even a passably funny line. Utter waste of Stephen Fry and John Bird.
I thought it was just me that hated that show. Hurrah!

neveragain


Gurke and Hare

The Castle. My god, The Castle. Imagine something that makes any of the things R4X constantly repeat that have got Marcus Brigstocke in them look like Fawlty Towers, and you're thinking of The Castle.

Mark Steels Stockbroker

What was the thing on last night, that had a Chris De Burgh reference in the first few minutes? I switched off after that.

Bhazor

Is there a CAB concensus on Hogg Goes Off?

idunnosomename

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on March 18, 2016, 07:04:15 PM
The Castle. My god, The Castle. Imagine something that makes any of the things R4X constantly repeat that have got Marcus Brigstocke in them look like Fawlty Towers, and you're thinking of The Castle.
Yes this is the worst

VERILY I AM LORD JEREMY OF CLARKSON I CHALLENGE THEE, SIR STIG, TO A RACE (not in cars but on a horse or something)


Gurke and Hare

Quote from: idunnosomename on March 20, 2016, 08:54:56 AM
Yes this is the worst

VERILY I AM LORD JEREMY OF CLARKSON I CHALLENGE THEE, SIR STIG, TO A RACE (not in cars but on a horse or something)

Music: Lady Ga-Ga played on a lute for no apparent reason.

MojoJojo

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on March 20, 2016, 10:50:17 AM
Music: Lady Ga-Ga played on a lute for no apparent reason.

Ha, I do wonder how much of the Castle is to do with giving people with a classical instrument something to do.

Gurke and Hare

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on March 18, 2016, 07:04:15 PMany of the things R4X constantly repeat that have got Marcus Brigstocke in them

Further to this, I've just noticed that they're re-running a series of I've never seen Star Wars tonight. This is on top of two of his terrible sitcoms that are currently running, Think the Unthinkable and Giles Wemmbly-Hogg Goes Off. What the hell has he got on the controller of 4 Extra?

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on March 21, 2016, 01:58:42 PM
Further to this, I've just noticed that they're re-running a series of I've never seen Star Wars tonight. This is on top of two of his terrible sitcoms that are currently running, Think the Unthinkable and Giles Wemmbly-Hogg Goes Off. What the hell has he got on the controller of 4 Extra?

Think the Unthinkable was an ensemble cast – Brigstocke may have contributed to the odd line, but pretty sure he wasn't a writer for the series. In any case, it wasn't 'his' sitcom.

I'm a little more forgiving about Giles Wemmbly-Hogg Goes Off – it was a decent idea, given how topic the idea was when the series started and Brigstocke, to his credit, has said that he based character upon himself when younger. However, it was very much benefitted from the input of Graham Garden, who was script editor – not sure how long for – and think it showed; the writing was very tight and far more so than a lot of the shows being mentioned here. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the show – the concept grew old quickly and a lot of the beats were repeated too much – but there was a clearly defined idea that was executed fairly well.