The Collected BBC Radio Comedies

One Foot in the Grave

A curmudgeonly collection of TV comedy sitcom One Foot in The Grave's best bits

Crabby, crusty, and curmudgeonly he may be, but Victor Meldrew, played brilliantly by Richard Wilson, voices the exasperation of the once silent majority. Accompanied by his long-suffering wife Margaret (Annette Crosbie), Victor's howlingly funny battles against what he perceives as modern-day ills have turned him into one of the great comic creations of our time. 
This collection gathers three of the best TV episodes from the well-known BBC 1 Series and an additional four scripts that were specially adapted for radio by One Foot in the Grave creator David Renwick and fully re-recorded by the cast. 
 
The episodes are: 
Alive and Buried": Made redundant at 60, Victor Meldrew has plenty of time on his hands, except now he has to contend with Age Concern workers and unreliable mechanics. 
 
 "Timeless Time": It's night-time. Victor can't sleep, which means that Margaret won't be able to either. 
 
 "In Luton Airport No-one Can Hear You Scream": Victor and Margaret return from holiday to find their home has been demolished. 
 
 "The Beast in the Cage": Victor encounters road rage when he's stuck in a bank-holiday traffic jam. 
 
"The Man in the Long Black Coat": Following the garden gnome incident, Victor Meldrew's feud with neighbour Patrick continues apace. Added to that, Victor has also bought some radioactive manure for his allotment. 
 
The Broken Reflection": Victor is acting as a neighbourhood vigilante and is not looking forward to his accident-prone brother coming to visit from New Zealand. 
 
The Trial": Although selected for jury service, Victor hasn't yet been required in court. However, he is still on call and therefore stuck at home all day. Can he survive the boredom?

David Renwick

David Jason

John Bird

Jan Ravens

Rory Bremner

Full Cast

A BBC Radio Sketch Comedy

The complete series of the BBC radio sketch show that takes a post-truth look at the history of laughter. 
 
A dark, quirky parody of Desert Island Discs, Desolation Jests is a post-apocalyptic sketch show that takes a not-altogether-accurate look at the history of comedy. Featuring faux interviews with spurious celebrities, conducted by the Roy Plomley-esque host JP Doom, it poses the question ‘Which comedy sketches would you most want at your side to face the end of the world?’ 
 
Choosing their favourite moments of mirth are Frankie ‘Flesh Eater’ Harris, who talks about life at the top of the ‘Most Wanted’ list; Viktor Schmelling, Emeritus Professor of Princeton University’s Faculty of Laughter; Lucian Bile (aka Rot Caries), Britain’s first and only punk dentist and Sydney Pynchlink, the innovative director behind some of the country's most admired weather forecasts. 
 
Among the counter-factual comedy clips singled out for posterity are the fast-talking lunacy of the Klutz Brothers’ classic A Day at the Proctologists, the atheist episode of Sunday Worship; most of an announcement from the Ministry of Unfinished Business, and a lobster with a rather crucial piece of evidence. 
 
Created by award-winning TV writer David Renwick (One Foot in the Grave, Jonathan Creek), Desolation Jests’ stellar line-up includes John Bird and Rory Bremner (Bremner, Bird and Fortune), as well as Dead Ringers star Jan Ravens and comedy legend David Jason. 
 
Written by David Renwick 
Starring: David Jason, John Bird, Jan Ravens, Rory Bremner 
With Christopher Timothy, Adie Allen, James Lailey and Nick Underwood 
Produced by Gareth Edwards 
Production Coordinator: Sophie Richardson 
A BBC Studios Production 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 13 December 2016-3 January 2017

David Renwick

Books by David Renwick

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