Radio 4's touch of class
Station orders three stand-up specials with a focus on working-class upbringings
Tom Mayhew, Jacob Hawley and George Fouracres are the latest comics to land stand-up specials for Radio 4 – all making reference to their working-class roots.
Tom Mayhew is recording his show, Benefit Scum, next week. It’s an autobiographical half-hour about growing up working-class and his time on benefits.
The BBC says: ‘[It] takes a wry, sideways look at the prejudices that people have towards benefits claimants and turns those assumptions on their head.’
It has been adapted from his an audio adaptation of Mayhew's acclaimed 2019 Edinburgh show I, Tom Mayhew.
Hawley will also address working-class life in his show, Class Act, which will be recorded later in the month.
Producers say: ‘In this show, he dissects his journey from working class banter boy to inner-London-feminist. This is politics for idiots, feminism for lads, love stories for louts and self-care for those who don't bother.’
Stevenage-born Hawley has previously made BBC Sounds podcast series about drugs and about the job market, with his latest, about love, having launching last month.
Last week, Fouracres revealed on social media that he had been commissioned to make a half-hour stand-up ‘loosely about changing post-industrial landscapes, pigeon flying, faith and aspirationalism, but chiefly it’s just impressions of my family, all of whom are funnier and more interesting than me.’
The comic, who is also member of sketch trip Daphne alongside Phil Wang and Jason Forbes, grew up in the Black Country but secured a place at Cambridge University on the strength of his university achievement.
His journey was the subject of his 2019 Edinburgh Fringe show, Gentlemon, on which his new Radio 4 show is based. It will be recorded this summer
Radio 4 has been airing half-hour stand-up shows at 7.15pm every Sunday.
This weekend’s special is from the Mash Report’s Rachel Parris, who considers the feminist credentials Jane Austen – an author she is familiar with as a member of the acclaimed Austentatious improv group which ad-libs full novels in her Regency style.
It will be followed on February 21 by Eleanor Tiernan’s Success Without a Sex Tape.
Previous comediansin the current run include Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Joz Norris, Imran Yusuf, Stephen Buchanan, Jayde Adams, Elvis McGonagall and Gemma Arrowsmith
Published: 9 Feb 2021
