Today’s Media Guardian leads off on a big piece about the state of play of radio comedy in this country at the moment. The piece is titled “Why Radio Comey Is a Joke”, although all it seems to do is question whether quite as many radio series are making it through to TV as they once did.
Little Britain and the Mighty Boosh get mentioned, but I’ve got to say, getting your series onto TV does not in my view make it a success. Just A Minute is regarded as a great success (I can take it and leave it in small doses), but it’s had more than one failed attempt to crossover onto TV. And I’d never want to see I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue crossover. The fact is that it’s a complete misconception that a comedy series is only successful if it moves across onto the small screen.
Yes – many series have taken that route to lesser or greater extents. But the very nature of radio means that comedy can, and does, work in a different way to television.
As it happens, the article isn’t anti-Radio 4 as the headline might have you believe. However, if comedians are just rushing to TV in the hope that they can get a DVD into stores in time for Christmas, then more fool them.
And Ed Reardon or whatever might have been able to appear at any time in the last ten years, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not worth putting on now. comedy doesn’t have to reinvent itself every moment. A funny programme is a funny programme.