John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme

[greenhill]

Series 1 Episode 1 is now on R4 and on iPlayer.
John Finnemore is the writer of Cabin Pressure. It is very funny.

[harryhausen]

Agreed. It's a little gem. No-one I know in RL knows Cabin Pressure or are prepared to even give it a go. Same with this. Frustrating, but at least we are laughing!

[Cherrypi]

It's brilliant. Loved the Winnie the Pooh intervention.

[greenhill]

I laughed a lot at the Winnie the Pooh sketch, also the "speak my mind" sketch made me cringe with laughter.

[Bluestocking]

Never fear, harryhausen, I love Cabin Pressure, and so do my DM and DF! JF's Souvenir Programme is great - loved the Man Who Spoke His Mind. How do you feel about Count Arthur Strong?

[LondonMother]

I love Cabin Pressure and JF's SP. I can't stand Count Arthur Strong. This may not be entirely fair, as I've never got beyond the first few seconds, because by that stage it has set my teeth on edge.

We went to a recording of the latest series of the Souvenir Programme this summer. Brilliant!

[Bea]

LondonMother - I found radio Arthur Strong very irritating and so not funny.... but have to confess telly Arthur strong very very funny and very touching!
If it's repeated.... highly recommended for a second chance!!

[LondonMother]

Oh gosh, Bea, that does go rather against the grain, but I suppose it's only fair to try...

[Bluestocking]

I agree that you should give the telly version of CTA a go if it's repeated, LondonMother. It is quite different to the radio version, just as funny, but Arthur is not nearly as nasty in the telly version.

[LondonMother]

It was the voice that did for me in the radio version. If it's the same strangulated shriek on TV, I may not get more than 30 seconds in.

[ComposHat]

Yes I enjoyed JF souvenir programme a lot and I don't normally like sketch comedy. I liked the slightly off Disney character painter. Cabin pressure is great too.

Also I loved Fags, Mags & Bags and Ed Reardon's week.

[Bea]

the dc's love this episode and quote this line endlessly... wonderfully silly and full of word play!
Kids love it!!!

Go on LM! Give it a go!

The Horne section is also a great favourite... we love wordplay and puns... !

[Bea]

ps... I love Rory Kinnear!

[NetworkGuy]

Liked "Count Arthur Strong" for a while, and "Ed Reardon's Week", for a while, but sometimes I think they end up making second, third, fourth series and the comedy content fails to inspire (me, at least).

Perhaps it's a 'freshness' thing that once it gets a bit stale, similar themes are used again with minor variation. Have to say I started off liking "Fags, Mags and Bags", but after a while (and an episode where product placement rules must have been broken - the one where there were lots of complaints about someone smelling bad) it again drifted away from pleasing me, and I switch it off. I think I switched "Down the Line" off in about 45 seconds from it first airing.

"Cabin Pressure" seems capable of far more variety, perhaps because the 'destinations' are many and varied, so more possibility for different and unrepeated stories. "Deep Trouble" (set in a submarine) was great, but I guess they felt there wasn't enough to run to 5, 6, 7 series.

Loads more views, things I liked (such as "Rigor Mortis", "The Consultants", "Genius", "Museum of Everything", "Nebulous", "Old Harry's Game" and "Revolting People") and disliked - anything mentioning "Podmore" or "Shuttleworth" or National Theatre of Brent" !

Can anyone remind me of the name of the series set in a London PR firm where the clients were politicians, mostly?

[greenhill]

networkguy do you mean Absolute Power? It's with Stephen Fry, I listened to the first series but got fed up of SF's ubiquity.

[NetworkGuy]

Seems possible, greenhill - and like you there are times when SF seems to be on many, many, things at once. Just noticed from the website that the "Horse romance" other voice is the guy from the BT Infinity ads... not that I ever listen to that series... though in this case not particularly because of SF.

[greenhill]

Absolute Power is back on Radio 4 Extra.

For those of you that like innuendo and silliness "Hamish and Dougal" are back on too. I tend to find it funnier after a glass of .

[greenhill]

networkguy Old Harry's Game series 3 is back on iPlayer too.

[ThoughtFox]

You'll have had your tea!

[zanz1bar]

Yellow car!

It's like a secret pass word , my familywill always be playing yellow car.

[FrankelInFoal]

I do love Cabin Pressure, awaiting news on the final episode

Anyone else a fan of really old radio shows? My dad used to give me cassette tapes of Goon Show, Navy Lark, Round The Horne and I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again to listen to. I've got loads on MP3 now and just love listening to them.

[AllMimsyWereTheBorogroves]

We listened to an episode of Hancock's Half Hour last weekend, FrankelinFoal. Brilliant. Radio 4 Extra is good for this kind of thing.

[hackmum]

Haven't logged in here for a while but I love John Finnamore's Souvenir Programme - we listened to a recording of series one last year when we were on holiday, driving around in the car, and have been catching bits of the repeats. It's very clever, and much much better than 90% of the comedy on tv.

Am also a huge fan of Cabin Pressure and Ed Reardon.

[FrankelInFoal]

Details for the last ever Cabin Pressure recording

[AllMimsyWereTheBorogroves]

Thank you, Frankel! I had checked this morning and am astonished how excited I'm feeling now. I hope the BBC keep the bookings open for more than a couple of hours and do a proper randomised draw...

[ummingandahhing]

He's a top bloke in real life too. I worked with him a few years ago.