A number of classic and cult comedies are to be broadcast on Radio 4 Extra as part of a season exploring the legacy of the 1990s, including early shows from Stewart Lee and Richard Herring and The League of Gentlemen.
As part of What Really Happened in the Nineties?, from May 7 - 13 each night at 11pm, Comedy Club host Jon Holmes goes retro to remind us how each series came about and to assess their comedic influence and legacy, as many later moved to TV.
Iconic chat show host Alan Partridge is up first with guests including BBC TV Commissioning Director Tony Hayers and Lord Morgan of Glossop and an 84 yr old maverick who once told a radical feminist to 'shut up and shave'. Steve Coogan stars in Knowing Me Knowing You from 1993.
On Sunday, it’s Alan Parker's 59 Minutes of Truth 9 (1/6) with Simon Munnery as the ‘urban warrior'. On Monday, it’s all the news as it happens, if it happens. Chris Morris hosts the savagely satirical award-winning comedy, On The Hour (S1, 2/6) from 1991. On Tuesday, it’s Lee and Herring's Fist of Fun (6/6) Radio 1’s cult comedy from 1993 starring Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.
On Wednesday, Hugh Dennis, Steve Punt, Robert Newman and David Baddiel face the pernicious evil of shampoo and conditioner in The Mary Whitehouse Experience (S4, 2/6) from 1990. Thursday sees hungry Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir, Nitin Sawhney, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia going for an 'English' in the gold award-winning Goodness Gracious Me (S1, 1/6) from 1996.
Finally on Friday, Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton star in On the Town With The League Of Gentlemen, the dark comedy about the 'local people' of Spent from 1997.
There will also be short new programmes looking at the impact of comedy in the 1990s. The Comedy Club Interviews will run from 7 – 13 May at 22:55-23:00 on BBC Radio 4 Extra. Simon Munnery, Richard Herring and the former controller of Radio 1 Matthew Bannister discuss ground-breaking comedy that aired on Radio 1 in the 1990s, including Chris Morris’s Blue Jam, Lee & Herring, The Mary Whitehouse Experience and Armando Iannucci.
The season also features Sally Phillips reading Bridget Jones Diary from 2 – 13 May at 22:45 on Radio 4.
