July 2020 - Available Now

 

May/June 2020

Ankle Tag - Series 3 of the sitcom I co-write with Benjamin Partridge starts on BBC Radio 4 on 28th May. Starring Elis James, Katy Wix and Steve Speirs, the previous series has just been repeated on BBC Radio 4 and is also on BBC Sounds. I should say, series 3 differs from the previous two in a couple of key ways. First of all, there are 6 episodes in the run, rather than 4 and also, for these ones, the Evans household doesn't have 300 people in their living room laughing at what they are doing. Bit of a continuity error on our part, but never mind.

The Other Side Of Tom Jones - This spoof documentary starring Mike Bubbins as Tom Jones and narrated by Michael Sheen, featuring heaps of archive clips taken out of context plus a few familiar voices goes out on BBC Radio Wales on 4th June. I wrote and edited the show, which is part of a week of programming dedicated to Sir Tom's 80th birthday... Although I suspect the other shows will be considerably more factual than ours. But, if you want to hear Tom's role in everything from Apollo 11 to Devolution - and with contributions from Colin Jackson, Sian Lloyd and Scott Quinnell - then this is the one for you.

Tourist Trap: The Stay At Home Special - The BBC One Wales TV series about the Welsh tourist board is on BBC iPlayer as a box set right now. However, during a Zoom call with the rest of the writing team, Sian Harries, Tudur Owen and I wondered how the team at WOW Wales would cope with asking people to stay away from the country, rather than inviting them to cross the border. With a TV show well and truly out of the question right now, Tourist Trap: The Stay At Home Special will be broadcast on BBC Radio Wales at 6.30pm on 22nd June (and be on BBC Sounds afterwards) and will follow some of the characters from the show at home, as they ask people to visit Wales... Later.

Tudur Owen: Zoo - And on the subject of tourism, I acted as script editor on Tudur Owen's latest show for BBC Radio 4, based on the true story of how his dad's entrepreneurial spirit led to his farm being dubbed "The Worst Zoo In Britain" by the News Of The World. The two parts will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 6.30pm on the 17th and 24th of June

January 2020 - Welcome Strangers

Welcome Strangers is a brand new sketch show on BBC Radio Wales starring Sarah Breese, Sian Harries, Kath Hughes, Mali Ann Rees, Beth Granville and Ruth Madoc as the narrator. 

I wrote some sketches and also worked as script editor on the show, three episodes of which are currently online - and will soon be joined by a fourth.

January 2020 - O'r Diwedd 2019

O'r Diwedd 2019: It may be January 2020, but if you're already feeling nostalgic about 2019 then the latest edition of O'r Diwedd is currently available (with English subtitles, if required) on BBC iPlayer. 

Presented by Sian Harries and Tudur Owen, it's our annual sketch show looking back at the year- and I'm even in this one, very briefly, as a Welsh learner. Which is apt.

Tourist Trap: There's also still to time to catch-up on Tourist Trap Series 2 - Just like Christmas decorations, the semi-improvised sitcom written by Sian, Tudur and I will be taken down on Sunday evening - so if you haven't seen it yet, now's your chance. 

Funny Nation: Also available on iPlayer is this documentary about the history of Welsh comedy presented by Elis James and directed by Iwan England. The three episodes cover stereotypes, live comedy and TV and Radio. I pop up here and there talking about shows that finished long before I was born - And, rest assured, should you ever need three hours of me banging on-and-on about Harry Secombe, Iwan really does have those out-takes safely tucked away somewhere. 

And if you are an Audible subscriber, you can still get hold of The Goodies - The Big Ben Theory Written by John-Luke Roberts and me with Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie and based on a plot by Barnaby Eaton-Jones, it's a new, hour-long audio edition of the show available to download now.

October 2019 - Tourist Trap Series 2

 
Tourist Trap is back! The semi-improvised sitcom/sketch-show* returns on Monday 28th October at 10.35pm on BBC One Wales and runs for six weeks - But all six episodes will be available on BBC iPlayer website afterwards.

And if you're the sort of person who enjoys a peek-behind-the-curtain, Sian Harries, Tudur Owen and I gave an interview to the British Comedy Guide about how we write the show which raises existential questions about what even is a script. You can find it here.

I have also been working behind the scenes on the first two editions of this series of The Now Show as well as helping out on Gary Slaymaker and Debra Humphries' show The Joy Of Text - all of which are now available on BBC Sounds.

*I co-write it and I'm not quite sure which it is.

October 2019 - The Goodies in The Big Ben Theory

If you head over to Audible now you can find a brand new audio episode of The Goodies. The Goodies - The Big Ben Theory is written by John-Luke Roberts and me - with Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie and based on a plot by Barnaby Eaton-Jones.

In the show The Goodies return to run the country in a plotline which seems even more relevant now than when we first sat down to write it. They're joined by Jon Culshaw, Kate Harbour, Philip Pope, Barnaby Eaton-Jones and Joanna Lumley. It's produced by Barnaby Eaton-Jones and directed by Dirk Maggs

If you head to the show page now you can hear a small audio-sample from around the opening of the show - and you can hear the whole thing for free if you sign-up for Audible's 30-day trial which, by my maths, should let you listen to it 720 times.

I also recently appeared on James King's podcast Cinema Stories in which guests chat about their three favourite cinemas - and as someone who once worked in a cinema (The Coliseum in Brecon) I was more than happy to provide a peek behind the heavy, red curtain.

Before long I found myself admitting to a professional film critic that I have seen the first Pirates Of The Caribbean film over 26 times as well as covering The Piglet Movie and a Rugrats film that was scratch-n-sniff. 

The whole show is currently available on Acast, Spotify and Apple... And once you've listened to the show, it might be worth you checking out this BBC Radio 4 documentary by Michael Sheen in which he provides an altogether more positive spin on the Port Talbot Plaza than the one I was able to provide.

July 2019 - Y Dynion Diarth

Back in 2016 Sian Harries, Ben Partridge and I wrote a pilot for S4C which Zipline Creative packed with legends and shot on a shoestring. Y Dynion Diarth didn't get picked-up, but we've popped it online should anyone be interested - After all, once you've gone to the bother of organizing a wedding in a service station, you want to show that off.

It stars Siw Hughes, Sian Harries, Dafydd Hwyel, Sara Gregory, Rhodri Evan, Carys Eleri and Gareth J Bale - with Ben and myself popping up in there too. It's in Welsh, with English subtitles available.



And July also saw the final episodes of Jolyon Rubinstein's topical discussion podcast We Need To Talk About... appear on Spotify. 

I've worked on the show since it began, back in September 2017, and we've played host to some incredible guests and talked about Brexit a lot. The full back catalogue - including a Best Bits compilation of the last 6 months, is available on Spotify now.

May 2019 - Live At Eleven

On the 23rd May, I took part in Live At Eleven, a brand new topical comedy show for BBC Radio 4. 

With no election coverage on the night of EU polling day here in the UK, I built one myself, filling-in the gap by playing clips of old elections from the BBC archive. My bit, and the rest of the show, is currently available on BBC Sounds (as, despite the show's name, it is actually available to listen to online for about a month).

Hosted by Toby Foster and Lou Conran, the show was produced by Ed Morrish and features Raul Kohli, Jennifer Williams, me and a real-life clown.

I also recently took part in Danielle Ward's podcast Any Stupid Questions. Danielle herself wasn't actually there, so Carrie Quinlan stood-in as host as Olivia Lee and I asked very stupid questions to experts Rick Muir (of the Police Foundation) about the Police and Claer Barrett (of the Financial Times) about Banks. Both shows, and the rest of the Any Stupid Questions back catalogue are available to download now.

And talking of podcasts, I am also a regular writer on We Need To Talk About…, Spotify’s topical comedy podcast, presented by Jolyon Rubinstein. There’s a new episode out every Friday morning and the whole back-catalogue of the show (including special one-to-one interviews and one-off documentaries) is available online now.

March 2019 - Give Wales A Try

The Tourist Trap Rugby Special will be broadcast on Friday 8th March at 10.35pm on BBC One Wales, and will then be available on BBC iPlayer shortly afterwards.

February 2019 – So You Think You Know About Europe? (Or Rugby?) (Or Cars?)

On BBC Sounds now, you can hear my most recent appearance on BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show. My set is all about how the UK has viewed the EU or, given the age of some of the clips I was fished out, the EEC.

The whole show is on BBC Sounds now. I start at 8 minutes 30 seconds, but listen to the whole show to hear Jake Yapp and Suzi Ruffell both on top form.

Links to my previous appearances on The Now Show are available on the Watch/Listen section of my website, and the Radio Times listing for the 1979 quiz show “So You Think You Know About Europe?” (which, once you’ve heard my set, you’ll definitely want to check out) is available on the BBC Genome website.

Also available on the BBC website is Gareth Gwynn’s Alternative Archive (which I’ve written about elsewhere on the blog) and also series 26 of Top Gear, on which I did a little bit of work behind the scenes... Not the exotic, far-flung bits - The cold, Dunsfold, aircraft-hanger bits - But nevertheless, it was a lot of fun.

A considerably warmer gig is We Need To Talk About…, Spotify’s topical comedy podcast, presented by Jolyon Rubinstein, on which I’m a regular writer. There’s a new episode out every Friday morning and the whole back-catalogue of the show is available online now.

And finally, we are currently putting the finishing touches to the Tourist Trap Rugby Special, which will be broadcast on BBC One Wales on 8^th March, the eve of Wales vs. Scotland. Once again I’ve worked with Sian Harries and Tudur Owen on the plots and scenes for this semi-improvised one-off which sees the whole team return ahead of a second series later in the year.

January 2019 - Alternative Archive

This Saturday Gareth Gwynn's Alternative Archive will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as part of the Archive On 4 strand. Kicking-off with an actual scientist explaining the Many Worlds theory it is (to my knowledge) the first Archive On Four to look, not backwards, but sideways - as we listen-in to radio stations from alternative universes.

We'll be covering a universe in which the UK is two foot underwater, where Russia won the space race and we'll be finding out how a BBC Radio 5 Live presenter caused a financial crash. We'll meet a British Pope, a Pan Pipe Playing Paul McCartney and a clutch of politicians doing day jobs you wouldn't expect. 

Of course, the best part about it all is that I can legitimately refer to it as an "award-winning show". I don't even need to wait and see if it will win an award. In a universe, somewhere, it will win one. That's how this works. The show will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 19th January at 8pm - and will be available afterwards on BBC Sounds. 

In other news, Jolyon Rubinstein's topical podcast We Need To Talk About... is returning to Spotify - and I'll be back on the writing team. The new series starts on 25th January and will feature comedians, journalists, politicians and musicians discussing the week's news. If you've never heard it before, head to Spotify now where you can find the whole back catalogue - plus four "Best Bits" episodes covering Brexit, Trump, Russia and the rest of UK Politics.
 

December 2018 - O'r Diwedd

O'r Diwedd 2018 is finished. S4C's annual look back at the year, which I co-write with Sian Harries and Tudur Owen (left) has been filmed, edited, and handed in - so we'd really appreciate it if nobody did anything newsworthy until 9pm on the 27th December. The finished show features guest appearances from Alun Saunders and Esyllt Sears and will be available afterwards (with subtitles) on S4C Clic and BBC iPlayer.

BBC Radio Wales will be repeating Gareth Gwynn's Twisted History of BBC Radio Wales over the Christmas period. The two episodes, which also feature Elis James, Nadia Kamil and a healthy chunk of the BBC Radio Wales archive, were originally made to celebrate the station's 40th anniversary, but will be broadcast again at 6.30pm on the 27th and 28th December and will then be available afterwards on BBC Sounds.

Also on BBC Sounds right now, all eight episodes of Ankle Tag, the sitcom I co-write with Benjamin Partridge, starring Elis James, Katy Wix and Steve Speirs, are also available to stream and download.

November 2018 - Beef and Beefs

Ankle Tag is now available on the BBC Radio 4 Comedy Of The Week Podcast. Episode 1 from Series 2 of the sitcom, which I co-write with Benjamin Partridge, is now on the feed - but if you then head to the website or BBC Sounds app, you can catch all 4 episodes, starring Elis James, Katy Wix and Steve Speirs - with a special appearance by Margaret Cabourn-Smith (who stood-in for Katy at the very last minute on episodes 3 and 4).

Tudur Owen - Where On Earth Is Anglesey is a brand-new two-part show by Tudur Owen about the island of Anglesey, actively combating the fact that it seems to be left off of maps with alarming frequency. I scripted-edited the show and the first part will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 11pm on Tuesday 27th November, and will then be available on BBC Sounds and later on the BBC Flip Podcast Feed.

Beef And Dairy Network Podcast - I made a second appearance on Benjamin Partridge's Beef-based comedy podcast in Episode 41 as Alex Neon, curator of the Network's archive. In this edition, I explain the importance of the International Beef Library and the history of the handheld console, the Beef Boy. Featuring a storming performance as computer game enthusiast Matt Lees.

Twisted History - Both parts of this show, written and presented by me and produced by Sharif Shahwan, looking back at 40 years of BBC Radio Wales , are now available online and via the BBC Sounds app.

This was part of a huge amount of programming marking the station's 40th - and once you've caught-up with Twisted History, I'd personally recommend I Was There about the very first days of the station - featuring an interview with Vincent Kane about the fact he didn't get the breakfast show... And the second link to a programme on this blog-post containing a massive beef.