Radio 4 is piloting six new topical comedy shows in its 6.30pm Friday night comedy slot.
The shows will be fronted by Rhys James, Dom Joly, Ria Lina, Catherine Bohart, Andrew Hunter Murray and – as Chortle previously reported – Rachel Parris.
They will be broadcast in the slot usually occupied by long-running topical shows such as The News Quiz, Dead Ringers and The Now Show. Friday Night Comedy is also a hit programme and podcast on BBC Sounds. Last quarter, it was among the top ten on demand radio programmes globally.
The specials – all of which will be repeated at 12.30am on the Saturday following their original broadcast– are:
July 28: The Newsmakers
Rachel Parris (Late Night Mash) hosts this spoof interview show, speaking with the people at the centre of the week’s stories. This one-off will feature Bilal Zafar, Emily Lloyd-Saini, Sam Pamphilon and social media stars Rosie Holt MP and Michael Spicer.
August 4: What Are You Talking About?
Hosted by Rhys James, What Are You Talking About? investigates the major issues of the week before solving them perfectly forever. Rhys will be joined by a gaggle of comics including Alasdair Beckett-King and Celya AB, to look at the news and ask ‘Why?’, ‘How come?’ And ‘Why though?’
August 11: Dom Joly Breaks the News
A surreally mischievous take on the week's news stories by Dom Joly, best known for Trigger Happy TV. Dom’s serious about tackling the actual news of the week. He just wonders whether approaching it from a slightly different angle might give us a more interesting answer.
August 18: The United Nations of News
Ria Lina heads up a crack team of comics from around the globe including Daliso Chaponda (Malawi), Ignacio Lopez (Spain) and Heidi Regan (Australia) to discuss the UK's biggest stories before looking at what's hitting the headlines in their homelands. We show them ours, so they show us theirs. This is The United Nations of News: proof that comedy really is universal.
August 25: Catherine Bohart; TL;DR
Columns. Analysis. The Guardian's Long Read. Who has time? Catherine Bohart, that’s who, and she and the TL;DR team will be digging deep into one big story that’s making the news this week to fill you in on how we got here.
September 1: The Naked Week
From The Skewer’s Jon Holmes comes The Naked Week, a fresh way of dressing the week’s news parading it around for everyone to point and laugh at. Host Andrew Hunter Murray will strip away the flimsy covering and jeer at not only the big stories, but also at the way in which the news itself is packaged and presented. From award-winning writers and a crack team of contemporary satirists - and recorded in front of a live audience - The Naked Week delivers a (consensual) topical news-nude straight to your ears.
Julia McKenzie, Radio 4’s commissioning editor for comedy, said: ‘I’m hugely proud of the much-loved programmes in Radio 4’s Friday Night Comedy slot, which are so popular with listeners. This summer, I’m excited to add to the Friday Night Comedy roster by introducing six new one-off programmes, where we’ll hear fresh takes on topics from each week’s news from some of the best satirists around.’
Dead Ringers is currently airing in the slot, with The News Quiz returning for its 112th series on September 8, after the new specials, and The Now Show, fronted by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis returning for its 58th run on November 3.
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