Keep It Light Media has announced the launch of their first scripted podcast, Dial F For Football, starring Lolly Adefope, Fergus Craig, Jessica Fostekew and Helen Cripps and featuring cameos from UK comedy royalty including Alan Davies, Ed Gamble, James Acaster, Lou Sanders, Ben Bailey-Smith and Phil Wang. The podcast is written by comedian Rhys James (Live at the Apollo, Mock the Week) and directed and written by Mark G Smith (8 out of 10 Cats, Mock the Week), with episodes releasing weekly from 27th March.
Dial F for Football is an audio comedy series that takes listeners behind-the-scenes of a popular commercial sports radio station, Totalsport FM. Listeners join the show at a time when the station has decided to 'modernise' its output by introducing more 'diverse, dynamic and interesting talent', a decision that provokes a reaction from its traditional listener base. As part of this attempt to drag the station into the 21st century, the station’s most popular double act 'Des & Pete' have been split up to make way for Lisa, a talented ‘urban’ YouTuber.
Battling to make her way in an ultra-masculine environment, Lisa (Lolly Adefope) endeavours to prove her worth to the audience and her producer Carla (Jessica Fostekew), whilst also dealing with condescending remarks from some of her callers and in-studio guests. Meanwhile, Des (Fergus Craig) realises he has to modernise with the station or face the same consequences as his former partner Pete.
Listeners will hear all the on-air station ‘output’, but they will also hear everything that happens behind-the-scenes, gaining access to the conversations between the hosts and their producers and everything else that happens in the studio while the news and weather are being read, or when the adverts are being played. Crucially, they will hear the conversations between the hosts and their producers. This leads to a show-within-a-show set-up, with all the complexity that comes with it; think The Larry Sanders Show or Alan Partridge's Mid Morning Matters. It's an audio sitcom that prioritises comedy, whilst also tackling issues of racism, sexism, toxicity and the old guard struggling to come to terms with the new generation.
Dial F For Football was created and produced by Tayo Popoola, an audio producer and presenter who has worked 'in and around' sports radio for 10 years. The music and sound design were created by Tom Jenkins, who was sought out especially due to his previous work on Radio 4’s satirical phone-in comedy series Down The Line.
