Radio 4 comedy commissioning attacked

The policy of commissioning comedies on BBC Radio 4 has been attacked by the former head of BBC radio entertainment.

John Pidgeon, writing in The Guardian today, talks about his time as a Perrier judge in 1999 where he saw The Mighty Boosh (pictured), Danny Wallace and Ross Noble. Pidgeon was determined to get them on Radio 4. With Boosh ready to go with their radio series, the network said that they were "a million miles from Radio 4." As a result, the radio series of The Mighty Boosh was broadcast on BBC London Live, and then later repeated on Radio 4 cheaply.

Similar problems occurred with Noble and Wallace's series Ross Noble Goes Global. After two series, the show was cancelled "because a third would have been 'more of the same', a shortcoming that has kept Just a Minute on air for more than 40 years."

Pidgeon claims that other people rejected by Radio 4 early in their carriers included Paul Merton, Tommy Tiernan and The Flight of the Conchords (who eventually had a series on Radio 2, before going on to worldwide success with their HBO show in America).

Pidgeon also claims that the station resisted Chris Addison's The Ape That Got Lucky, Dave Gorman's Genius and Matt Lucas and David Walliams' Little Britain; all of which have since become success stories and have lead to TV adaptation projects (Little Britain is now heading Stateside, Genius is transferring to BBC2 and Chris Addison's show has spawned Lab Rats, which starts on BBC2 soon).