Andrew Hunter Murray's satirical show to return

Radio 4’s new Friday Night comedy The Naked Week has been commissioned for a second series.

Fronted by comedian Andrew Hunter Murray, the satirical show aims to take a more in-depth look at the week’s events and is described as ‘if Private Eye, TV Burp, and Popbitch had a lovely, if slightly demonic, baby’.  Episode four of the first six-part series  – which also features Amy Hoggart as a correspondent – airs tomorrow, 

Radio 4 comedy commissioner Julia McKenzie broke the news on the channel’s Feedback show today, which revolves around  listeners’ comments. When asked if there is going to be a second series, she said simply: ‘Yes’ before going on to praise the show.

She said: ‘There is a particular sense of kind of trust and alchemy that happens when you're pulling together a satirical show, and you can just sometimes feel it in the room. Andy Hunter Murray is a terrific host, really witty, erudite. 

‘I think the team have been really innovative and fresh with the way that they've treated certain subjects, but I've been really impressed with how they've managed to find fresh angles.’

She added that series creator Jon Holmes’s instincts ‘are always to be playful and silly and mischievous’ but added: ‘We knew that we wanted it to have satirical heft as well. And I'm satisfied that they've they've been able to achieve that combination,.’

Presenter Andrea Catherwood said complaints about The Naked Week had ‘flooded in’, and played a clip of one listener saying it wasn’t funny. However, the backlash provoked its own backlash, with more comments praising the format.

Holmes said the aim was to dig deeper, saying: ‘Comedy shows can just be funny… but we wanted to have a proper journalistic bent to it.

‘It’s all very well doing jokes about the news, but what if we dig in to it a bit further and even start uncovering our own scoops?  We wanted to go all right, here's some silly jokes, and we're shouting at a dog. But now, actually, have a listen to what we've uncovered about government lobbying, and we've  been running that as a theme over this series. 

’It’s light and shade. It's a chance to hear some silly stuff. And now, actually, here's some real satirical points with jokes, but you might want to listen a bit closer, because this is where we start digging in.’

McKenzie also revealed that Radio 4 would be repeating the second series of Janey Godley’s stand-up show The C Bomb starting on January 7 in tribute to the comedian, who died last month at the age of 63.

Other Feedback listeners complained about canned laughter on Radio 4 comedies – only to be told laughs are never added in later – as well as a general feeling that new comedy isn’t as good as older shows.

Published: 19 Dec 2024