I've been an avid fan of TV and radio comedy since I was a young boy, but was inspired to start writing sketches around 1989/90 when I fell in love with 5 very funny BBC radio shows:
Live on Arrival
The Mary Whitehouse Experience
Star Terk II
Victor Lewis-Smith
Saturday Night Fry
These shows were all very different in style, but were brilliantly written. Live on Arrival was an early Punt and Dennis collaboration, who later went on to star in The Mary Whitehouse Experience, alongside David Baddiel and Rob Newman, which was produced by Armando Iannucci.
Star Terk II was a very funny Radio 4 sketch show, and was extremely well written and performed. I've never heard it since, have no recordings of it, and it's never been released on CD, but it got me started on Radio 4 comedy. I remember catching it once on a Saturday night by accident and never looked back.
Saturday Night Fry was a 1988 Hugh Laurie / Stephen Fry collaboration, but also featured Jim Broadbent, Emma Thompson and others. It featured satirical sketches, interspersed with snippets of classical music and linked by Stephen Fry in his own perfect way. I have all 6 on tape and each one is a 30-minute piece of perfection.
Victor Lewis-Smith was a revelation. His series in 1990 was rude, vulgar, bitingly witty and satirical, anarchic and - especially to an 18-year old - totally hilarious. I listened to 2 shows before I realised that he was performing all of the voices himself. The pace of his shows was breathtaking, and it's his standard that I aspire to achieving in my podcasts.
Ah yes, podcasts. Unless you've switched it off, you're listening to 'Clever Little Pod' - a podcast that I created back in July 2005 before the likes of the BBC had swamped the iTunes chart. I love writing, producing and performing it, and the reaction from the audience helps to motivate me to write more.
I made this MySpace Music Player at MyFlashFetish .com.
Myspace Editor
Pimp MySpace
?
