Alex Lowe

Angelos & Barry, comedy review

This stage spin-off of a podcast offers plenty to relish once you've tuned into its wavelength.

Review: Angelos & Barry

They are both marginalised characters on the edge of society - either from bored self-destruction, or simply by being old and forgotten. So when Angelos Epithemiou and 82-year-old Barry From Watford team up for a podcast a couple of years back, it made perfect sense.

Angelos and Barry review

The comic alter egos of Dan Renton Skinner and Alex Lowe claim to be the New Power Generation come to save us in a thin but skilfully written show.

Rarely Asked Questions - Alex Lowe

You may not know who Alex Lowe is but you really should. He is the man behind Barry from Watford, the eccentric, elderly gent and scourge of radio phone-in shows.

Interview: rarely asked questions - Alex Lowe

You may not know who Alex Lowe is but you really should. He is the man behind Barry from Watford, the eccentric, elderly gent and scourge of radio phone-in shows.

Radio 4 series for Barry from Watford

Barry from Watford is getting his own Radio 4[z/] show. The rasping octogenarian's creator, Alex Lowe, is writing Barry's Lunch Club, a stand-up series for the 11.30am comedy slot, in which the character acts as an agony uncle for the middle-aged and elderly.

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.

Last two comedy shorts of the series. There's a slightly patchy one - Nell, Ted And Marlon - about a member of So Solid Crew helping out with a community choir, but the real treat here is Alex Lowe and Fraser Steele's Barry, featuring Lowe's octogenarian character Barry from Watford. In his 80s and determined to live life to the full now his wife has left him for a local entrepreneur, he checks things off his bucket list with the help of his grandson. Joyous and such skilful character work. Full series please.

Made by Steve Coogan's Baby Cow stable, Common Ground is a collection of ten 15-minute comedy shorts, each set in a neighbourhood in south London. Having featured Simon Day, Amelia Bullmore, Jessica Hynes and Charles Dance in previous weeks, the series concludes with Barry - based around Alex Lowe's octogenarian little Englander character which he honed by calling in to Iain Lee's LBC programme in the mid-2000s. With his wife having run off with a retired financial advisor, Barry embarks on a bucket list with his grandson.

It may not be earth-shatteringly original, but it's worth it just to hear Barry's view on pink candy floss: 'It's like eating Barbara Cartland's minge.' A (fictional) former member of So Solid Crew takes over a church choir in the far-funnier Nell, Ted and Marlon. It quickly descends into a creepy love triangle (with One Foot In the Grave actress Annette Crosbie occasionally chiming in with some unexpected filth); the humour is sharp, surreal and pleasantly wicked in places.