Radio Weekly #10

Gigglebox Weekly With Ian Wolf

This week Ian Wolf listens to the inner thoughts of some sea creatures and learns how John McCririck could liven up the insurance industry…

Tidal Talk from the Rock Pool

This series is odd for several reasons. Not only is this a show featuring monologues from various animals living in a seaside rock pool, but it’s actually a remake of a show, using most of the same performers.

Created back in 1997 by Lynne Truss (her of the totalitarian approach to grammar fame), the original series consisted of six 15-minute monologues with no audience laughter. This version, recorded in front of a live audience at Radio 4’s More Than Words festival, consists of three 30-minute shows, two stories per edition, with Truss introducing the stories.

The first of these tales featured Bill Wallis as a periwinkle who is fond of telling old gags, almost akin to an end-of-the-pier comic, who rants about how the English enjoy eating him. The second stars Geoffrey Palmer as moaning hermit crab who doesn’t get along with the amoeba that lives and protects him.

I wasn’t expecting much from this, but I rather enjoyed it in the end. The hermit crab story was my personal favourite out of the two, especially when he was panicking about being fished out of the pool by children with nets, causing him to exclaim that he actually likes the amoeba in a sudden outburst…

Overall, a likeable series and rather diverting. Fun in an unusual way.

Tom Wrigglesworth’s Open Letters

This is the second series of Open Letters, in which Sheffield-born comic Tom Wrigglesworth attempts to solve the issues surrounding Britain’s most annoying businesses in a form of a letter to the boss of a major company.

In the opening episode, Wrigglesworth wrote, or rather performed as it is basically a stand-up routine, a letter to the head of confused.com about why they should make insurance less confusing.

There were some humorous moments, but I think you can tell the quality of the show when you discover that the funniest bits are not from Wrigglesworth, but from his grandmother, when she is encouraged to write to her life insurance provider about herself and her husband being at increased risk thanks to a bread maker. Don’t get me wrong, it’s funny, but most of the show is lacking in big laughs.

For me, the best contribution from Wrigglesworth was his idea on how to improve the insurance business, which involved a live TV show hosted by John McCririck. However, most of the time it’s a bit of an information overload full of complaints rather than anything comedic.