Dozens of shows for 2019 and 2020

Radio 4 has announced a raft of new comedy commissions, with programmes from the likes of Bridget Christie, Joe Lycett, Tom Allen, Harry Hill, Rowan Atkinson and Joanna Lumley.

Highlights of the programmes are:

• A new Comedy Playhouse strand featuring 12 new standalone half-hour comedy scripts from a mix of both established and new writers – see below for the full line-ip
• Shows from new comedy talent including Rosie Jones: Far From An Angel from a comedian who has who has cerebral palsy; Twayna Mayne’s Black Women, based on her experiences as a black girl growing up with a middle-class, white family; Ellie Taylor’s Safe Space, about marriage, monogamy, motherhood, and masculinity; and Darren Harriot’ss first radio stand-up series Black Label.
• The return of  Stand Up Sunday for a second series, with comedians including Heidi Regan, Phil Wang, Suzi Ruffell, Sofie Hagen and Jacob Hawley perfoming half-hour specials.
• New programming from well-known names such as Marian Keyes, Suggs, Rowan Atkinson and Hugo Rifkind

Comedy Playhouse

This series comprises

No Gods, No Golf by Zoe Lyons, which tells the story of 46-year old singleton Zoe, a gay criminal defence lawyer who, with no kids, religion or golf club membership to occupy her, often finds herself wondering what life is really all about.

The Specials by Jenny Laville features Henry, a boy living with his mum, his grandad, his obsession with The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, and his autism.

Amna Saleem’s sitcom Beta Female explores the multiple identities young women from ethnic minorities must follow to navigate their way through life.

Support, written by and starring Bridget Christie, tells the tale of an enthusiastic but incompetent do-gooder who wants to help people in her local town.

Jack Bernhardt’s British Troll Farm is set in a secret Government unit dedicated to fighting a cyberwar by the power of a million snarky Tweets.

The Mayoress, a satire of local politics, daft bureaucracy and small-time power, written by Brenda Gilhooly and starrinf Harry Hill, Jack Dee and Michelle Collins.

Unite, which explores class, compromise and step-sibling rivalry when a working-class South Londoner falls in love with an upper class property developer, written by and starring Mark Steel, his son Elliot and Ivo Graham.

City of Tomorrow about a man working with disadvantaged kids at the Television Workshop in Nottingham – even thought they don’t want his help and he’s got the wrong keys to unlock their potential.

The other shows are called Hazel Tours, Napoleon Moon, Hypertension and one more than has not been named.

Also

Other shows include a four-part programme from Suggs in which the Madness frontman shares a love letter to multicultural London through music, history and comedy.

Louise Ford and Yasmine Akram will write #GODSWORK, a comedy focusing on three different vicars, all played by Rowan Atkinson – Ford’s real-life partner – whose churches are based in the North East of England.

Journalist and News Quiz regular Hugo Rifkind has his first Radio 4 series in Hugo Rifkind’s Search For Power which explores what it means to have power in modern Britain.

Marian Keyes brings her storytelling to Radio 4 In Between Ourselves with Marian Keyes. The show will also feature comedian and writer Tara Flynn.

Anneka Rice stars in a one-off programme, The Clemmie Hart Years, which explores the mystery of Anneka’s fictional agent, Clemmie Hart.

Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam star in the first full series of Conversations From A Long Marriage, written by Jan Etherington. They play a couple who have been married for over 40 years. Children of the Sixties, they're still free spirits, drawn together by their passion for music - and each other. A one-off aired earlier this year. Lumley will also be starring in The Joanna Lumley Playhouse

Other new series from comedians are Liam Williams Self Cares; Susan Calman Makes Me Happy; Paul Sinha’s General Knowledge; and Tom Allen is Actually Not Very Nice.

Thee are also shows called The RIP List, Quiz Nite, Maureen & Friends and Teatime, about which Radio 4 have released no information.

Sioned Wiliam, Radio 4’s commissioning editor for comedy, said: ‘Radio 4 is the home of comedy and once again we’ve got some of the biggest comedy names and writers as well as up and coming comedians from across the UK who are the stars of tomorrow.

‘Our range of Radio 4 comedy attracts over five million listeners each week, and is hugely popular with a younger audience both on-air and in our podcasts which are regularly near the top of the charts."

 Twayna Mayne said of her show: ‘Having a radio series commissioned by the BBC is brilliant, I never thought that as a hip hop loving teenager who also liked listening to The Archers that one day I'd have my own show on Radio 4. I'm looking forward to bringing my stories about identity and a love for farming dramas to a wider audience.’

The new comedy commissions are expected to air on BBC Radio 4 in 2019 ad 2020.

The following shows will also be returning: Daliso Chaponda: Citizen of Nowhere; Mark Watson Talks A Bit About Life; Welcome to Wherever You Are; Phil Ellis Is Trying; Sophie Willan’s Guide To Normality; Geoff Norcott: Right Leaning But Well Meaning; Meet David Sedaris; Mark Steel’s In Town; Henry Normal; Joe Lycett’s Obsessions; Sindhustan; Rhys James Is…; The Museum of Curiosity and The Tim Vine Chat Show.  

Published: 13 Nov 2018