The best of the week's comedy on TV and radio

The best of the week’s comedy on TV and radio:

Sunday April 12

MORECAMBE AND WISE FOREVER: Both parts of this affectionate documentary are repeated tonight, including classic footage, revealing home movies, and rare photos. ITV3, 8pm

Monday April 13

THE Penny Dreadfuls PRESENT RICHARD III REBOTHERED: The latest special from the comedy troupe looks at how the last Plantagenet was not the conniving and treacherous hunchback as portrayed by William ‘fake news’ Shakespeare, but an honest and loyal warrior with only a slight spinal kink. The cast are David Reed, who also wrote the 45-minute show, Thom Tuck, Humphrey Ker, Margaret Cabourn-Smith and guest Celeste Dring. Radio 4 2.15pm

Wednesday April 15

RUN: This new comedy from Fleabag director Vicky Jones also features Phoebe Waller-Bridge as executive producer role and in a minor role. It stars Merritt Wever as a woman living an ordinary life in the suburbs and Domhnall Gleeson as her old college boyfriend. The couple made a pact 17 years earlier that if either one of them texted the word ‘RUN’ and the other replied with the same, they would drop everything and meet in Grand Central Station and travel across America together. And that, of course, is exactly what happens. Sky Comedy, 9pm

ROSIE JONES: BOX TICKER: In this new series of four 15-minutes episodes, recorded in a comedy club, the mischievous stand-up considers why she’s supposed to be a spokeswoman the various aspects of who she is: disabled, gay and northern. This week, she looks at disability with help from comedian Jamie MacDonald, who ticks the 'blind box’. Radio 4, 11pm

Thursday April 16

ONE MINUTE PLEASE: Here’s a historical comedy curio – the forerunner to Just A Minute. But while the joy of the format that’s been a cornerstone of Radio 4 for 53 years is it’s simplicity, this incarnation was complicated by extra traps, including a secret password, and a jury who could adjudicate. But the rules about deviation, repetition and hesitation were all there. Desert Island Discs’ Roy Plomley was the host, and in this surviving episode from September 1952, 'The Ladies' - Margot Holden, Martina Mayne and Violetta Farjeon - take on 'The Gentlemen' - Gerard Hoffnung, Eric Sykes and Jack Train. Raido 4 Extra, 9am

Published: 12 Apr 2020