With Frank Skinner, Scott Bennett and Ken Chen

Frank Skinner, Scott Bennett and Ken Cheng are all fronting new Radio 4 comedy shows.

Skinner is to host a panel show about eccentric online reviews entitled One Person Found This Helpful.

In the show, guests must work out what items people were describing from their reviews, often intentionally or unintentionally hilarious.

Producers say: ‘If you're the person who went on TripAdvisor to review Ben Nevis as "Very steep and too high", this show salutes you!’

Six shows will be recorded at the Rada Studios in London from next month and free tickets are available from the BBC website. 

Bennett has recorded a Radio 4 show Stuff, which will air at 7.15pm on Sunday   December 10.

In it, the comic, talks  about his previous career as a product designer, and focuses on the pitfalls of consumerism. 

He said: ‘I’m so excited to be doing my first Radio 4 stand-up special combining my two passions in life, comedy and design.

‘We've put together a show packed with jokes and thought-provoking questions. If you're bullied by your smart meter, dominated by your doorbell or feeling like this endless orgy of consumerism is leaving you with a hole in your soul, then you need to listen to Stuff.’

The show was produced by Made In Manchester - but actually recorded at  The Stand in Newcastle.

Cheng is returning to the station with I Can School You, a three-part series about the education system.

In the show –  to be taped  at London’s Up The Creek comedy club in South London on Monday, the comic examines common problems, and unpacks what we really should be learning.

He previously made three series of the autobiographical comed series Chinese Comedian for Radio 4, winning him a BBC Audio Drama Award for best comedy.

Free tickets to the taping are available from the BBC website.

Additionally Paul Sinha  is to record a special end-of-year edition of his Perfect Pub Quiz, challenging a team of Radio 4 presenters to answer questions about the new facts  from 2023.  It is being recorded at the Backyard Comedy Club, London on Monday December 18. Again free tickets are available from the BBC.

It comes as comedian and BBC weather presenter Sam Fraser criticised the sexualisation of weather girls ahead of a Radio 4 documentary  she is fronting on the topic next week.

She told the Radio Times: ‘The "weather girl" as an object of desire is a tenacious and dangerous stereotype. As long as the term is in use, it contributes to a culture of permission to demean, humiliate and objectify.’

Fraser, who presents on South Today has found herself featured on a Babes of Britain YouTube channel, while her bottom had its own online fan club. 

She previously performed a stand-up show at the Edinburgh Fringe about the sexism she has faced — and will explore it more deeply in Scorchio! The Story of the Weather Girl, which airs at 11am next Wednesday.

Published: 15 Nov 2023