Kerry’s List (Radio 4) | iPlayer
52 First Impressions With David Quantick (Radio 4) | iPlayer
Caroline Raphael, the BBC’s long-standing comedy commissioner (full title: commissioning editor, comedy and fiction; she was also the commissioning editor for Radio 4 Extra), last week announced she would be leaving next spring, after the BBC decided her job should be reframed, to comedy and entertainment commissioning editor, and her hours cut from five days a week to three. Raphael had a mixed reputation among comedians – there were many who felt she didn’t “get” a lot of off-beat comedy – but her hits speak for themselves: Little Britain, The League of Gentlemen, That Mitchell and Webb Sound, Count Arthur Strong… It will be interesting to see whether whoever replaces her has a hands-on or hands-off approach to programmes. Sometimes the BBC’s “we know best” attitude can really kibosh a comedy, its editors’ constant script vigilance seeming less like nurturing and more like a cat playing with a dying sparrow. If I were a comedian, I would insist on making my show with a non-BBC production company that could fight my joke wars for me. Editors and producers aren’t funny. Comedians are.
Kerry’s List, the second series of Kerry Godliman’s affable Radio 4 comedy, uses an outside production house, and I’m glad to hear it. Godliman’s funniness is in her and her everyday life; it would be awful if she were made to be proper. Last week, her impression of Jamie Oliver (“Kick it in the nuts with a bag of turmeric!”) made me really laugh; as did her ranting about wanting to have a mad house party to her husband, when he just wanted her to pass him a spanner so he could mend the washing machine.
Each show is based around Godliman’s to-do list for the week, which might include things such as “organise photos, sharpen pencils, move house… Superglue, catflap, grout”. These lists are not only familiar to all of us, they provide a structure to each show; a neat structure, but flexible enough to include flashbacks and phone-calls and scenes with short-sighted opticians as well as a bit of Godliman’s stand-up. She has some great lines (“Isn’t ‘we need more space’ just one of those things people say when they can’t be arsed to tidy up?”) and her on-air character doesn’t feel too far away from her real character, which gives the whole show a natural, naturally funny air. I like it a lot.
I also like 52 Impressions with David Quantick a lot too. In the show, Quantick talks about his first impressions of 52 people he’s known or met in his life. (52 because he was 52 when he thought of the idea; also there are 52 cards in a pack, 52 weeks in a year. No reason, really.) So he hops between Björk and his sister, Michael Caine and Freddie Mercury. Last week he had some lovely anecdotes about Fidel Castro, David Bowie, Lemmy and the Queen, as well as his own dad, who was a certified accountant who checked the ledgers in town halls.
Quantick’s script has some good lines too, though he can throw them away with his on-stage delivery. This show is recorded live in front of an audience, which I was surprised about – Quantick isn’t the most practised of performers – but perhaps it was just to keep the format different to his very successful Blagger’s Guide programmes. Because he isn’t a stand-up, sometimes he lets his own jokes down, but I like the awkward naturalness of his delivery. It can be quite hard to find something genuine on Radio 4, which is a place for honed and well-rehearsed opinions. 52 Impressions, along with much of Kerry’s List, allows us to hear some funny humans, being funny and human. Good.
