Radio 4 does the Unspeakable again...

Full series of Phil Wang and Susie Dent panel show

Radio 4 has commissioned a new series of word-based panel show Unspeakable!

The comedy game is hosted by Phil Wang and Susie Dent, who invite guests to dream up new words that describe universal, shared concepts and experiences which have always lacked names.

New episodes are to be recorded in front of a live audience in August and September, following a successful pilot which aired earlier this year with Stephen Fry, Laura Smyth and Maisie Adam among the guests.

The format owes a nod to The Meaning Of Liff, Douglas Adams and John Lloyd’s 1980s ‘dictionary of things that there aren't any words for yet’. Rather than inventing new words, they used existing place-names. English humourist Paul Jennings did the same in an article in the late 1950s.

Unspeakable! was devised by TV and radio producer Joe Varley , who previously helped develop Murder in Successville and the British version of Drunk History.

He produced the pilot through his company Brown Bred Productions with Akash Lockmun and Jon Harvey – best known as the general election candidate Count Binface

The new episodes will be recorded on August 27 and September 2 and 4 at The Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green, East London. Free tickets are available from Standing Room Only.

The pilot is still available on BBC Sounds.

Thanks for reading. If you find Chortle’s coverage of the comedy scene useful or interesting, please consider supporting us with a monthly or one-off ko-fi donation.

Any money you contribute will directly fund more reviews, interviews and features – the sort of in-depth coverage that is increasingly difficult to fund from ever-squeezed advertising income, but which we think the UK’s vibrant comedy scene deserves.

Subscribe or donate here

Published: 22 Jul 2024