BCG Daily Wednesday 8th January 2014

Jerry Sadowitz: my fight for my friend

Comic Jerry Sadowitz denounced Jimmy Savile years before he was exposed. Now, writes Brian Logan, he's asking why the death of his friend Mark Blanco has never been properly investigated.

Radio Times review

Is it me or has Jack Whitehall overdone it a bit lately? The plummy comic is everywhere you look - panel games, sitcoms, chat shows (several of each), comedy awards, plus his own show on BBC Three with his dad. He has become inescapable. (Anyone would think he had a book out for Christmas.)

Here, in an edition postponed from December, he kicks off the bombastic stand-up show with a frantic routine about his experience with a cheese strudel on a German airline. It's not in itself hilarious and in lesser hands could fall flat but Whitehall powers it home through sheer, over-caffeinated energy.

Then Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan gets things going with a much better routine: her impression of Beyoncé going to the grocery store is worth seeing.

Radio Times review

You know how the best way to spoil a joke is to explain it? Well, here comic and critic Natalie Haynes looks at attempts to write mathematical algorithms to create chuckles.

She hears recordings created by Graeme Ritchie at the University of Aberdeen and David Matthews of the University of Edinburgh, who have both written algorithms to generate simple jokes. Haynes places their attempts at computational comedy in the wider context of a society increasingly reliant on algorithms: from stock market trading to online dating.

In the end, though, as humans can't explain what's funny, what chance some computer code?

Radio Times review

Series nine of what must be Radio 4's longest-currently-running sitcom begins with Clare (the superb Sally Phillips) arriving late for a meeting with her fellow social workers at Sparrowhawk Family Centre. Which is rather odd, as she's supposed to be on honeymoon at the time.

She's remaining tight-lipped as to why she left her long-suffering partner Brian (Alex Lowe) at the airport while he enjoyed a nibbling-fish foot spa. But as he decided to continue on the holiday - it is full board and non-refundable, so it's a shame to waste it - we get to hear his side of the story when numbs the minds of his fellow holiday-makers and locals with the details.

It provides a complementary storyline to the travails of the social workers back home, and includes a hilarious turn from Nina Conti as a shrill holiday rep intent only on relaying information about a series of increasingly bizarre day trips.

Meanwhile, Clare is having to contend with an elderly Mrs Magoo character on the Sparrowhawk Estate, who is convinced that she will die that day - as her visual sight has diminished so her second sight has improved, apparently. Hannah Gordon is virtually unrecognisable as the batty old dear.

If you haven't listened before - and if not, where have you been for the past ten years? - Clare in the Community walks a fine line between silly, scatological humour and nuanced satire of government do-gooders who know all the current jargon but nothing of people's everyday concerns.

Radio Times review

Mark Steel is so resolutely down to earth that you just know a visit to the hippiest, new ageist place in the world, if indeed it is of this world, would provide him with rich pickings. And so it be. Starting with his description of Glastonbury, plagiarised in my first sentence, he gleefully toys with the mystical, magical reputation of the Somerset town - though some of the biggest laughs are for the reported reactions of Glastonbury-born residents to the more far-out sentiments of new age "incomers".

He also easily gets the audience on his side by pointing out that the town has nothing to do with the festival that bears its name, which is held seven miles away in Pilton. But then he finds himself caught out in the arcane political world of the Somerset cider drinker and the rivalry between Glastonbury and neighbouring town Street.

Not only does Steel manage to entertain, he also slips in a few fascinating bits of information: who knew that both Muhammad Ali and Henry Cooper's boxing gloves from their famous 1966 heavyweight title fight were made in Glastonbury, or that the true tribe of Israel are peoples from Somerset? Listen out also for the most jaw-droppingly funny newspaper headline you're ever likely to hear - you'll be fighting back tears of laughter.

QI: why milk is more of a food than tomatoes

A quietly intriguing column from the brains behind QI, the BBC quiz show. This week: QI got milk.

Cabin Pressure nominated for two BBC Audio Drama Awards

Cabin Pressure, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, is among the nominees for this year's BBC Audio Drama Awards.

David Jason calls for campagin to bring back Only Fools

Sir David Jason, the star of Only Fools and Horses, says if enough people tweet their support another series might be commissioned.

Ford Kiernan's son found dead

The 12-year-old son of Still Game star Ford Kiernan has been found dead.

Tom Basden's R4 comedy adapted for small screen

Radio 4's political sitcom Party is being adapted for television.

Opinion: How to please everyone all the time

The trouble with comedians is that it brings out their competitive instincts.

Justin Chubb and Chris Bran interview

As series two begins, we talk to the men whose strange little creation attracts guest performances from the likes of Stephen Fry, Olivia Colman and Derek Jacobi.