Featuring The Maydays troupe

Digital radio station Union Jack is to launch a new improvised comedy series, in the new year.

In the show, Dead British, one improv performer will play  a famous character from history, being asked questions about their life. However, they will not know in advance which person they are playing. Meanwhile, a backing cast will add improvised historical flashbacks, and impromptu original songs to illustrate the ad-libbed biography.

The 12-part series features improv talent including The Maydays troupe (pictured) and was recorded  in Nottingham in front of a live audience.

Producer Lloydie James Lloyd, said: ‘Improv has rarely featured on radio to a significant degree, and there has been little investment in this growing art form. Dead British is different to anything else currently available on British radio’.

And Dick Stone from Union Jack radio called it an ‘incredible and innovative series’, adding: ‘Despite featuring a wide variety of brilliant new and classic comedy, Union Jack Radio hasn’t previously featured improv as a genre of comedic performance. Until now.’

Improv came to the fore in the UK thanks to Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which launched on Radio 4 in 1988 before transferring to TV. Previous improvised radio shows have included The Masterson Inheritance  in the 1990s, Showstopper! in 2010-2011 and occasional episodes of Austentatious.

 Dead British, which was created by production company Folder Media, launches at 7pm on Thursday January 6

Published: 21 Dec 2021