New commissions from R4

Radio 4 has commissioned new comedy series from Alun Cochrane and Thom Tuck.

Alun Cochrane’s Fun House is a six-part series based around the comics home, in which he takes a look at some of the minutiae of each room as he goes through.

The BBC blurb for the show says: ‘A hoarder of funny and original observations on everyday life, Alun invites us to help him de-clutter his mind and tidy his ideas into one of those bags that you hoover all the air out of and keep under your bed.’

The series will be recorded over three nights in MediaCity UK, Salford, next month – and Cochrane is keen to fill the small audience with existing fans of his low-energy stand-up.

In a mailout to he fans, he said: ‘I would love to have people who like what I do come along to the recordings, rather than people staring at it thinking, “Why is he still talking about this?”, which is a constant risk I run.’

Radio 4 has also picked up a full series of Thom Tuck Goes Straight To DVD, following a successful pilot that went out last year.

That episode was based on his 2011 best-newcomer-nominated Edinburgh show in which he watched all 54 straight-to-DVD Disney movie, then used the experience to talk about his own life.

The new series will cover different genres, such as bodyswap, Bollywood and Steven Seagal movies.

Tuck – a third of the Penny Dreadfuls comedy troupe and currently appearing in the London run of political drama Coalition – will be recording the shows at the Up The Creek Comedy Club in South London next month.

Details of how to be in the studio audiences of both shows are available on our Free Tickets page.

The commissions follow the news that Radio 4 has ordered a pilot of Peacock and Gamble’s Emergency Broadcast and six more quarter-hour episodes of Can't Tell Nathan Caton Nothin’.

Published: 22 Feb 2013