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99p quiz show, radio 4

Benny the Ball

19:19 / 01.09.04

I'm chucking this in Conversation, as wasn't too sure if it went here or in Film and TV (even though it's radio). I finally sorted out my computer so I can play the BBC radio's on it, and was flitting though the radio 4 listings, and saw this and remembered that Armando (however you spell that and his last name I'm not even going to attempt, the funny man who gave us such things as Alan Partridge, Day Today etc) and Simon Pegg were on it. Was quite good fun. Just wondering if anyone else heard it, and what they thought?

Grey Area

07:21 / 02.09.04

Absolutely hilarious. Especially the line about Margaret Thatcher in the spoof obituaries bit. And the convenient list of words to include in your complaint to BBC Feedback (don't forget 'why oh why oh why oh why...'). Programs like this are the reason I like listening to Radio 4.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

23:19 / 02.09.04

As I'm sure people are bored shitless by me saying, Radio 4 rocks. Chiefly for its comedy. I only caught a few minutes of this yesterday, but what I heard rocked. (The Jim Davidson spoof obituary, for one thing).
One thing I don't understand with the BBC (and don't get me wrong- it's produced some- okay, A LOT OF- fucking wondeful TV comedy)... seeing as how radio's so much cheaper than TV, why do they manage a better good/shit ratio of shows on radio than they do on TV? Is it just the old "the pictures are better on radio" thing? Or am I just getting old?

Char Aina

03:07 / 03.09.04

nah, its because they dont have that commercial pressure.

big money needs to be repaid, and therefore shows need to sell to other networks and on DVD. my therory is that its another case of LCD selling for financial predictability.

can you honestly imagine the execs okaying brass eye without knowing mr morris had a huge following already?

Grey Area

07:04 / 03.09.04

Another reason might be that on radio you can't fall back on the visual humour element to salvage crap writing. On TV, if your script is crap, it's easy to go "Oh well, we'll just stick the main character in a bunny suit and have him pelted with slime. That'll get a laugh". On radio, you're stuffed if your words don't manage to convey your joke.

I also think that the voice actors have to work so much harder to build up a character. They have to build up a character that we can picture in five minutes or less, a task that's achieved in 5 seconds on TV. The result is a much more carefully crafted piece of acting, which is, to me at least, much more enjoyable. R4 is the main reason I haven't missed my television in the nearly five years since I ditched the damn thing.

10:18 / 03.09.04

This show has little bits of word-play that unhinge the brain. That's what I want from my R4 comedy. I liked People Like Us and The Sunday Format for the same reason - they really bent the language badly.

However, now I can only remember the 99p Challenge round of adverts for things that don't usually have adverts.
[You have to read these with the bass sincerity of a razor commercial]:

"Get connected - with wires."
"Tin labels - tells you exactly what it says on the tin."

Brigade du jour

01:52 / 06.09.04

Jolly funny show. Especially the other week when Simon Pegg was on, forging his every contribution from the burning embers of thirty-four years spent watching sci-fi movies and reading comics, bless his cotton socks.

Except that smug (if clever and funny ... which makes it worse) git Armando Iannucci beating him in the tiebreak with his smug gitness.

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