... and other Radio 4 Christmas comedy highlights

The Just A Minute team are to star in their own panto.

Katherine Ryan, Rufus Hound and Shelia Hancock will join host Nicholas Parsons and regulars Paul Merton and Gyles Brandreth for the festive special.

Parsons said: ‘I’ve been presenting Just A Minute for 50 years and I’ve appeared in many pantomimes during that time. These factors combined we have created a festive edition of our iconic show without hesitation, repetition or deviation. Oh yes we have!’

Just A Minute Does Panto! will air on Christmas day at 1.15pm, and feature the regulars journeying through Panto-land in search of the missing Golden Whistle. 

A Radio 4 spokesman said: ‘There’ll be adventure, genies, panto dames, goodies, baddies, and audience participation. But above all, at the heart of it, a cracking game of the much loved comedy show.’

The show is the centrepiece of Radio 4’s Christmas comedy specials, which were unveiled today.

They include two editions of impressionist show Dead Ringers, offering Christmassy versions of shows such as Panorama and File On Four, which will air at 6.30pm on December 23, and a review of the year, to air on December 30.

And the team behind Warhorses Of Letters, which revolved around fictional correspondence between historical equines, have penned a similar nativity-based special

Some Hay In A Manger, by Robert Hudson and Marie Phillips, recalls  letters sent between Sandy, an upbeat but dim camel carrying a king and some myrrh through the desert, and Martha, a thoughtful but rather sarcastic donkey taking a heavily pregnant lady to Bethlehem.

The sixth series of John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme kicks off with a seasonal special on Tuesday December 27. And there are also special editions of The Tim Vine Chat Show,  Sir Lenny Henry’s Rogues Gallery, in which he plays a migrant of restricted height who ends up in an strange old people’s home in Kent, where the secrets of Christmas are gradually revealed.

Finally, 15 Minute Musical returns for two specials about the US Election and Brexit.

Published: 22 Nov 2016