The Semi-lost Art of Radio Comedy - 01/23/02 10:36 PM
I have often rued the demise of good radio comedy. The Goons, Fourth Form at St Michaels', The Navy Lark, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and their ilk don't appear to have spawned successors worthy of the name.
Listening to Radio Four (the Beeb-Beeb-Ceeb as, I think, Peter Sellers called it) in the car on my way home in the evenings generally rewards me with nothing more than an endless rehashing of the political crisis du jour. And generally the commentators are so strapped for new material and starved of real information that they begin interviewing each other, always a sign of aural decay and that final lurch into complete intellectual torpitude on the part of the media. They even sound excited about it, sometimes, which is even more of a worry.
The best the Radio Four has been able to come up with in recent months is The Archers and, lately, a rather clumsy dramatisation of "The Lord of the Rings". Can't accuse Radio Four of not recognising a bandwagon when it gets run over by one, can you? There are various attempts at humour, some of them quite good in patches. But they are generally current affairs satirical sketches or they simply take the mickey out of politicians. Anyone can do that, can't they?
So, imagine my delight when I chanced upon a series of half-hour comedies called "Absolute Power" written (and performed, in part) by Stephen Fry. Gobsmackingly good, they are. The premise is that Fry and a couple of others are running a media relations company which takes on near-impossible image control and spin-doctoring assignments, mostly for government and the rich and famous.
It's well-written and side-splittingly funny. It is topical to some extent ("The Prime Minister is visiting England next week, but he'll only be staying for a few days"), but it relies mostly on cleverly-crafted audio sight gags, like most good radio comedy, and succeeds (IHMO) very, very well.
Listen to them if you get the chance!
Listening to Radio Four (the Beeb-Beeb-Ceeb as, I think, Peter Sellers called it) in the car on my way home in the evenings generally rewards me with nothing more than an endless rehashing of the political crisis du jour. And generally the commentators are so strapped for new material and starved of real information that they begin interviewing each other, always a sign of aural decay and that final lurch into complete intellectual torpitude on the part of the media. They even sound excited about it, sometimes, which is even more of a worry.
The best the Radio Four has been able to come up with in recent months is The Archers and, lately, a rather clumsy dramatisation of "The Lord of the Rings". Can't accuse Radio Four of not recognising a bandwagon when it gets run over by one, can you? There are various attempts at humour, some of them quite good in patches. But they are generally current affairs satirical sketches or they simply take the mickey out of politicians. Anyone can do that, can't they?
So, imagine my delight when I chanced upon a series of half-hour comedies called "Absolute Power" written (and performed, in part) by Stephen Fry. Gobsmackingly good, they are. The premise is that Fry and a couple of others are running a media relations company which takes on near-impossible image control and spin-doctoring assignments, mostly for government and the rich and famous.
It's well-written and side-splittingly funny. It is topical to some extent ("The Prime Minister is visiting England next week, but he'll only be staying for a few days"), but it relies mostly on cleverly-crafted audio sight gags, like most good radio comedy, and succeeds (IHMO) very, very well.
Listen to them if you get the chance!
