Edinburgh hits transfer to Radio 4

A raft of Edinburgh hits are being made into Radio 4 comedies.

Tom Wrigglesworth’s Open Return Letter to Richard Branson – nominated for a Chortle Award today – Tom Basden’s play Party and Micky Flanagan’s What Chance Change? all feature in the station’s spring schedule.

Meanwhile, Ronnie Corbett teams up again with the writers of his sitcom Sorry! for a new series, When The Dog Dies.

He plays a retired hotel manager and committed granddad who has promised his children that he will downsize and get rid of his lodger – played by Liza Tarbuck –  ‘when the dog dies’. The series, written by Ian Davidson and Peter Vincent, starts on April 30.

Bestselling American humorist David Sedaris also presents a series of comic monologues in April, covering topics from Christmas in The Netherlands, to his father’s eating habits. Sedaris is also playing three nights London’s Leicester Square Theatre in March.

Of the newer talent coming to Radio 4, 2007 if.comedy best newcomer Basden has converted his 2009 Fringe First winning play Party into a four-part sitcom, starting on March 10.

This series, about young idealists trying to set up a brand new political party, starts Tim Key, Johnny Sweet, Anna Crilly, Katy Wix, Nick Mohammed and Basden himself.

Flanagan’s live show about his journey from working-class oik to middle-class comedian, What Chance Change?, was last year made into a one-off Radio 4 show However, the BBC has now picked the idea up for a full series, starting in May.

While Wrigglesworth’s story of a run-in with a jobsworth guard on a Virgin Trains journey from Manchester to London will air on March 9 at 11pm.

Radio 4 has previously announced the first show from Sarah Millican, Sarah Millican’s Support Group, in which she dishes out advice to real people. The cats of the show, which starts this Thursday, includes Simon Day, Helen Atkinson Wood, Tim Key, Emma Fryer, Janice Connolly, Nick Mohammed, Ruth Bratt and Mark Heap.

Other Radio 4 series in the pipeline include new runs for I’ve Never Seen Star Wars with Marcus Brigstocke; Mark Steel’s In Town and the sitcom Clare In The Community, starring Sally Phillips. 

Published: 15 Feb 2010