October 2018 - Tourist Traps

On Tuesday, episode one of The Tourist Trap will be broadcast on BBC One Wales. 

The improvised sketch show set in a fictionalised version of the Welsh tourist board stars Sally Phillips, Mike Bubbins, Elis James, Mari Beard, Tom Price, Tudur Owen, Sara Lloyd-Gregory, Leroy Brito, Sarah Breese and just bloody loads more really great people. 

I'm on the main writing team for the show, together with Tudur Owen and Sian Harries, although "writing" is such an odd description for how this programme is actually put together. 

As a semi-improvised show, Sian, Tudur, and I created a bunch of characters and, together with with other writers, outlined reams and reams of funny situations, awkward encounters and horrible predicaments we could put them through. The full 200+ page document really is the stuff of nightmares.

Then, months later, we got sent a Vimeo link and the chance to see what happened, how people coped and what got scaled down for budgetary reasons. Honestly, I imagine this is exactly what it's like to be God. 

Tourist Trap is part of BBC Wales' Festival Of Funny which sees sitcoms and stand-up appear all over BBC Wales' radio and television stations. As part of it all Ankle Tag, the sitcom I co-wrote with Benjamin Partridge starring Elis James, Katy Wix and Steve Spiers, is being repeated on Monday nights on BBC Radio Wales (and on iPlayer afterwards) - so you can catch up with Series 1 ahead of the second series appearing on BBC Radio 4 in November.

Also on the BBC Radio Wales website right now is my documentary about holidaying in Wales, Welsh Under Canvas. It's not strictly part of the Festival Of Funny, but it does feature tourism - something which is fast becoming the overlap in the Venn diagram of my recent work for BBC Wales. 

And also available right now as a BBC podcast is Felicity Ward's Appisodes - a show which I script edited that was broadcast earlier this year. The new "Flip" feed acts as a chance to download BBC radio comedies as a box-set, meaning all four episodes of the show are available right now.

I've got loads more exciting stuff coming out soon too, but I'm writing this in a coffee shop and with very low battery so details on that, and proper photos to do with the above will just have to wait.

September 2018 - Ankle Tag Series 2 Tickets Available Now

Earlier this year I got rid of Google Chrome and changed my default search engine from Google to DuckDuckGo. Why? Because Ben Partridge and I were starting work on Ankle Tag Series 2 and the research for that would definitely put me on some kind of watch list. 

The show, about a recently released fraudster trying to slip back into family life, stars Elis James, Katy Wix and Steve Speirs and is, once again, being promoted with the greatest cast photograph in the BBC's illustrious history. The show will be recorded in the Radio Theatre in London at the end of the month. If you want to come along, tickets are available here.

I made my second appearance on Dave Holmes' transatlantic panel show International Waters together with Katie Storey, Freddie Wong and Julia Prescott, and made a joke about Glan Afan school, which is pretty niche even before you take into account the listenership is largely American. The show is available on the Max Fun website or, as they say, wherever you get your podcasts.
 
We're in the brief window during which all four episodes of Felicity Ward's Appisodes are online for you to download, listen and live your life by. Episode 1 will drop-off at the end of the week, so be swift!

And all three episodes of We Need To Talk About recorded at the Edinburgh Festival are now available on Spotify. What's more, we've got another live episode in the diary, as part of the London Podcast Festival on the 16th September. Tickets are available from the King's Place website now.

August 2018 - Appisodes And Edinburgh

Felicity Ward - Appisodes is a new four part series for BBC Radio 4, written and presented by Felicity Ward, all about mobile phone apps that claim to help with different mental health issues. I worked on the show as script editor and am so excited about the finished product.

The four episodes tackle Insomnia, Depression, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Anxiety and feature incredible performances from Bobby Mair, Nick Helm, Jess Fostekew and Rose Matafeo.

They go out on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesdays at 11pm from 8th August - and each one will be available on the BBC Radio iPlayer for a month after that. 

In other news, We Need To Talk About... is going to Edinburgh. Jolyon Rubinstein‘s topical comedy podcast is recording three special editions live at the festival, and I’ll be heading up there to help set the questions and write the script.

We’re recording on 17th, 19th and 21st August at 11am in the Assembly Rooms George Square Studio 3 and all three recordings will be available exclusively on Spotify afterwards. 

Tickets to the live recordings are available from the Edinburgh Fringe website and details of who is going to be appearing will no doubt creep out of J's Twitter and Instagram pages.

June 2018 - Tiny Scriptwriter

The Dave Berry Breakfast Show started this week on Absolute Radio, and I was asked by legendary producer Dave Masterman to write an advert for its launch, featuring… Actually, I won’t say who’s in it. That really is half the fun. Just give it a watch and you'll see.

Sue Perkins’ Earpedia - Series Two of this Audible Original show is now online, presented by Sue Perkins, featuring Margaret Cabourn-Smith and Simon Kane and written by Gabby Hutchinson-Crouch, Jon Hunter and myself.

Series 1 was all about animals, so with that done we've now moved on to plants. Honestly, I don’t know how David Attenborough has spun this out into a 60+ year career. We’ve done two series and absolutely nailed the lot.

Elis James: Cic Lan Yr Archif - All six episodes of this rummage through the S4C archive have now been broadcast, and most of them are still available through BBC iPlayer (with subtitles if required) (which I do) (despite being on the writing team for the show).

We Need To Talk About - Presented by Jolyon Rubinstein, there’s a new edition of Spotify's topical podcast uploaded every Friday, with the host’s script written by me, Jon Hunter or Jenny Laville (but I won’t say who wrote which ones as I am all for collective responsibility).

BBC Cymru Fyw – While I'm here, I'll mention this recent article about me on the Cylchgrawn (Magazine) section of the BBC Cymru Fyw (BBC Wales Live) website. As you have probably guessed, it's in Welsh, so I popped it through Google Translate (owing to my own limitations in the language) and was genuinely thrilled to see that at one point I am described as "...one of the tiny scriptwriters". Welsh speakers have offered to explain the translation, but I really am more than happy to remain in-the-dark for the time being.

In addition to the above, I am also script editing two series for BBC Radio 4 – Felicity Ward’s Appisodes and Tudur Owen’s Where On Earth Is Anglesey – both of which will be broadcast later in the year and one of which was subject to a technical error so brilliantly catastrophic, we literally had to come back another day to record the whole show again. (I say that having only recorded one of the shows so far, so this really is a terrible example of tempting fate).

I’ll also be heading to Llandudno for this year’s Craft Of Comedy Conference, where I shall be conducting a Topical Comedy workshop, speaking on a panel with the BBC Writers Room, making the most of the fact I've recently joined Instagram and remembering where I have parked.

March 2018 - We Need To Talk... Again

We Need To Talk About... - Series 2 of Spotify's topical podcast is now well underway, with 6 episodes currently available and a new edition uploaded every Friday.

The show is presented by Jolyon Rubinstein with writing duties split between Jon Hunter and I, recording locations split between London and LA and writing locations split between London and other bits of London. 

Earpedia - Sue Perkins presents facts about animals, with assistance from Margaret Cabourn-Smith and Simon Kane, in this Audible Original series which I wrote with Gabby Hutchinson-Crouch, Jon Hunter.

I mentioned this on my blog before Christmas, but it turns out they hadn't actually been officially released back then and weren't really meant to be online - but now they are. It sounds like the sort of thing a record label might do to spark an underground hit, so it's good to see the technique applied to a bunch of facts about the Naked Mole Rat. 

Top Gear - I'm also doing a little bit of work behind the scenes on the current series of Top Gear on BBC Two. After one recording, I returned to the car-park to find I had a flat-tyre and was given special permission to drive across the test track in my 8-year-old, bird-poo covered Ford Focus, in order to get to the garage to get air. Pretty sure that bit won't make the edit.

January 2018 - Just A Magic Minute

Just A Minute: 50 Years In 28 Minutes, a show I produced to celebrate 50 years of Just A Minute, is now available on BBC Radio 4's Comedy Of The Week podcast, through the BBC Radio iPlayer and also as a short animation...

A few other shows I've been working on went out over the festive period and links to all of them are in the previous blog post which, depending how you're reading this, will almost certainly appear below...

Christmas 2017

We Need To Talk About... - I've been working as a writer on Jolyon Rubinstein's Spotify podcast and the final episode of series 1 is available now.

Just A Minute: 50 Years In 28 Minutes - I got to produce an episode of Just A Minute - It isn't like other episodes of Just A Minute. Based on an idea by Paul Merton, this one-off to celebrate 50 years of the show goes out on Christmas Day at 6.30pm on BBC Radio 4 and will also be available on the Comedy Of The Week podcast and through the BBC Radio iPlayer.

O'r Diwedd 2017: I co-wrote this look-back at the year together with Sian Harries and Tudur Owen, which will be broadcast on S4C on Boxing Day at 9pm, after which you'll be able to find it on S4C Clic / BBC iPlayer (with subtitles).

Twisted 2017: Another look back at the year, this time in english, without pictures and on BBC Radio Wales. Broadcast on 30th December, the show will feature Melangell Dolma, Vern Griffiths, a healthy dolop of the BBC archive and some fantastic contributions from stand-up Sarah Breese.

Happy Birthday BBC Local Radio

Last week, I was on The Now Show on BBC Radio 4, talking about 50 years of BBC Local Radio. You can catch the full thing on the Radio iPlayer/Podcast but someone working in the online team (who clearly really likes old jingles) has clipped together the best bits here...

We Need To Talk About... Tony Law

At 7.15pm on Sunday 29th October (and online for 30 days after that) you can catch a brand new sitcom pilot written by John-Luke Roberts and I for BBC Radio 4. 

Tony Law: 21st Century Adventurer stars Adjoa Andoh, Nina Wadia, Freya Parker, John-Luke Roberts, Helen Lederer and Tony himself - who, brilliantly, came dressed for the part. Gosh, I hope he realised it was for radio.

I've also been working behind the scenes on a brand new show for Spotify Premium subscribers. We Need To Talk About... is presented by Jolyon Rubinstein and features panelists from comedy, music and journalism who pick through the week's news and try not to get too down about it all. At the time of writing there are 5 episodes available, with plenty more on the way. 

Finally, Elis James' Pantheon Of Heroes was nominated for Best Entertainment Or Comedy Production at the Radio Academy's ARIAS 2017. We saw didn't win, but we got to go to Leeds for the ceremony - so here's some photos of Busted, looking like they are on the set of Tron. 

Comedy Of The Week

All four episodes of Ankle Tag are now available on the BBC Radio 4 website.

Written by Benjamin Partridge and I, the show stars Elis James, Katy Wix and Steve Speirs - all three of whom you can see in the incredible iPlayer photo on the left which, after four episodes, is still being used. 

Ankle Tag is also this week's BBC Radio 4 Comedy Of The Week podcast - So download it now (or listen below if I can make the embed thing work*) to hear episode 1 - plus Elis and I being interviewed by Cariad Lloyd about the show (although they seem to have cut my bit on exactly how to disable an Ankle Tag. Probably very wise).

In other news, Series 4 of Elis James' Pantheon Of Heroes, written by Elis, Ben and myself and starring Elis, Ben and Nadia Kamil, has been nominated for a Radio Academy ARIAS award. The show isn't on iPlayer any more, save for this smidgen of it on Twitter and a couple of clips from Series 1-3 on the BBC Radio Wales website. 

(*I can't).

Inside And Outside

Ankle Tag is a sitcom for BBC Radio 4 written by Benjamin Partridge and I and stars Elis James, Katy Wix and Steve Speirs - who you can see to the left, captured for posterity in one of my favourite cast photos of all time.

(You can find a synopsis of the show here – but I honestly think the show's title and that photo are already doing a lot of the work - so if it seems like your kind of thing, you can probably just dive straight in).

There will be four episodes going out on Wednesday nights at 6.30pm starting on the 23^rd August, and each one will be available online for 30 days afterwards.

Meanwhile, for BBC Radio Wales, I’ve been out-and-about, working on a two part series about camping and glamping. The Welsh Under Canvas, produced by Leaping Wing, sees me visit Pembray, Hay-On-Wye and several other places in-between - as I try to find out exactly what it is about outdoor living that appeals to us.

If you like Sue Perkins, animals or jokes (and I find it highly unlikely that you won't be a fan of at least one of those things) then you may enjoy a new podcast written by Jon Hunter, Gabby Hutchinson Crouch and myself.

Zoopedia consists of 13 episodes of facts about animals, presented by Sue with assistance from Margaret Cabourn-Smith and Simon Kane and produced by Ed Morrish. They’re an Audible Original, so if you’re already a member you can get them all for free.

And in addition to all that, you can also catch me on Sunday afternoons on BBC Radio Wales from 4-6pm (and on BBCiPlayer Radio shortly afterwards)… But do be quick. I’ve only got a handful of shows left to go!

Lolitics

Lolitics is a monthly, political stand-up comedy night in Camden, London, run by the brilliant Chris Coltrane who encourages acts to come down and do brand new sets full of political material.

Now I've been to Lolitics as an audience member many times but, last month, was very excited to head there, armed with some photos of Merthyr Tydfil, and talk to a room full of people in London all about the Welsh Assembly.

Chris edits the gigs down and releases them as The Lolitics Podcast - the website for which is well worth checking out as the archive he is building up there is really quite something.

You'll find my set at the end of Episode 46 but, in addition to the podcast, Chris also pops them on YouTube - This is particularly handy for me as the visual-aids I was waving around can also be seen in the video below... Which is potentially more useful than just hearing them flap-about on the podcast. 

You can hear the set in the video below or download the podcast itself - And don't forget to check out Chris' Twitter and other projects. 



Also, I should say, I've had my hair cut since that photo was taken and, looking at it now, not a moment too soon

Llandudno Craft Of Comedy Conference

On the BBC Radio 4 website now there are two editions of The Now Show on which I was part of the writing team. The most recent, broadcast on 31^st March 2017, was recorded in front of an audience at Venue Cymru in Llandudno – Where the Craft of Comedy Conference was taking place.

I popped up here-and-there as part of the conference itself, and also spoke to The Today Programme’s David Sillito who, having taken part in our topical comedy writing workshop, chatted to me about current state of satire. His finished package, broadcast on Tuesday morning and featuring people far more famous than me, is embedded below.

Then, on the way back, I stopped off in Wrexham to present a slightly truncated version of my regular BBC Radio Wales afternoon show. The whole show can be found on the BBC Radio Wales bit of iPlayer.