BBC Radio 4 has announced a large slate of new comedy commissions.
Comedy legend Omid Djalili will host Omid Djalili: Noise Pollution, a show which aims to cut through all the noise to confront complicated global issues and make sense of what is going on in the world, all whilst calming your inner chakras. Listeners can expect a mixture of stand-up from Omid and chats with comedy pals, exploring a different zeitgeisty theme each week.
Slim was the first black British comedian to sell out the London Palladium with his own show and is known to many as the “Godfather” of the British black comedy scene. In Slim’s Guide to Life, he looks back over his eventful past – from taking himself out on a day trip around London aged 3, to becoming a dad at 17 and a grandad in his 30s – he’s seen a lot - and shares what he has learnt along the way.
Alistair Green, whose online videos of tragicomic try-hard characters have been watched tens of millions of times, will star as the host of a brand-new spoof podcast – featuring a range of deluded guests from the world of business, wellness and influencing.
Stand-up comedian and farmer’s daughter Kiri Pritchard-McLean swaps her trademark sequins for wellies in Kiri’s Farm. She gets to grips with rewilding, soil fertility and more on her 51 acres in her native Ynys Môn. She brings her trademark wit and warmth as well as a community full of folk who want to help, even if they think she and her brother have lost her minds.
Why In the Name of Pierre Novellie is a series of elaborately interwoven stand-up routines on random subjects that Pierre Novellie has thought long and hard about, such as “Why is 12th Century French poetry so rude?”, “Why is Wales where it is?” and “Why does pasta taste so good?” A comic “In Our Time” if you will, served with Pierre’s signature style of erudite bafflement.
Fresh from winning Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, Ayoade Bamgboye will pilot a new idea called Matters of No Matter, where she plays an eccentric scholar on a mission to answer the questions nobody asked. Written off by academia but undeterred, she dives into pseudo-science, giving airtime to the discerningly unimportant matters and the maverick characters no one else would touch. Esoteric, eccentric, and gloriously unserious.
Stand-up fans can also look forward to a host of specials from a wide range of new comedy stars. Emer Maguire: Patron Saint of Bad Luck is a heartfelt musical comedy about navigating a year of personal upheaval and self-discovery – as Emer Maguire explains how her worst year led her to live her best life; Amy Annette delves into the experiences of being a Y2K teenager - from girls’ mags to Trinny and Susannah - in her show I Survived the Noughties; Finlay Christie offers his take on being one of the Gen Z generation and how he and his friends have grown into the adults they’re now expected to be in Finlay Christie is Younger Than You.
Matt Hutchinson, a stand-up comic and NHS doctor, blends sharp humour with powerful storytelling drawn from his experiences as a black medic during the pandemic and beyond in Are You Really the Doctor?; Maria Shehata’s Leap of Faith unpacks Maria Shehata’s romantic gamble moving from LA to London for love, echoing her parents’ own move from Cairo to Ohio when they embarked on an arranged marriage having known each other for just three days; Ray Bradshaw Hears You explores Ray Bradshaw’s experience of growing up with two deaf parents and being their link to the hearing world; and in Goldfish, Nina Gilligan explores the quirks and fragility of memories via middle-aged meltdowns and the unfiltered commentary of her inner goldfish.
Radio 4 will also launch a range of pilot programmes, including: Sikisa’s Border Control as stand-up and immigration solicitor Sikisa walks the audience through different immigration cases that might not be as clear cut as they appear; The Making of Colin Hoult sees acclaimed character actor Colin Hoult inhabit a range of his bizarre family members, showing how they made him the man he is today; Zoe Lyons asks Now What? as she pieces her life back together after things went belly-up in her fifties, with advice from celebrity guests.
Eleanor & Pals sees online Scottish comedian Eleanor Morton showcase comedy characters along with guest and comedy pal Zara Gladman, and a sitcom pilot written by Rosie Holt and David Quantick charts Rosie Holt MP’s slippery path to power after defecting from the Conservatives to Labour just before the last election in Crossing The Floor. More pilots, including further sitcoms, will be announced next year.
Several popular shows have also had second series confirmed, including innovative sketch show P.O.V. which spotlights top online comedians, Ian Smith’s hilariously futile quest for calm in Ian Smith is Stressed, the Regency rake sitcom The Many Wrongs of Lord Christian Brighty and Laura Smyth’s exuberantly funny conversations on maverick mothering in Your Mum.
Pictured: Left to right: Omid Djalili; Kiri Pritchard-McLean (credit Drew Forsyth); Alistair Green; Slim; Ayoade Bamgboye (credit Patch Bell at Patch Studio); Pierre Novellie (credit Matt Stronge)
