Raft of new comedies on Irish radio

Sean Hughes, Deirdre O'Kane and sketch trio Foil, Arms and Hog are to record comedy shows for Ireland's RTE Radio 1.

A total of 18 half-hour programmes are to be recorded live at the first Comedy Showhouse festival in Dublin later this month.

They include the return of topical comedy panel show Don't Quote Me!, fronted by Hughes and featuring Fiona Looney, Karl Spain, plus guest Andrew Maxwell.

Hughes is also recording a solo stand-up show at the festival, held at the Project Arts Centre

Other shows being taped there include She's Having a Laugh, a chat show presented by Deirdre O'Kane about the history of funny Irishwomen. Guests include The Nualas and Maxine Jones.

Foil Arms & Hog and stand-up Gearóid Farrelly will be recording some of their work for radio, while in Colm O'Regan Wants a Word, the stand-up and author of the Irish Mammies books looks at Ireland's 'linguistic foibles'.

Paddy Cullivan looks at the history of Irish satire in Cullivan's Travels; and comic and musician Aindrias de Staic recalls a year he spent 'busking, blagging, shagging, gagging, gigging, jigging, joking and banging out the songs' in Around the World on 80 Quid.

Comedy Showhouse billed as the first ever radio comedy festival in Ireland, takes place over eight days from January 31. <a href="http://projectartscentre.ie/event/comedy-showhouse/">Details and booking info</a>. The shows will be broadcast on Radio 1 across the year.

Published: 15 Jan 2016