Andy Lynch

So it was back to the kitchen for No Angel by Andy Lynch, on Radio 2's Comedy Showcase. Martine McCutcheon played a TV producer, trying to get ahead while coping with her ghastly star (Clive Anderson). She keeps meeting a disreputable man with a heavy Liverpool accent (Ricky Tomlinson). Is he stalking her? Could he be her father? No, he was her guardian angel. She took some convincing. I didn't. The title rather gave it away. But the real surprise here was how awful Clive Anderson was in a straight role. Perhaps he didn't want to pretend to be vain, bossy, unreasonable and demanding which was why he made his lines sound like plasterboard. McCutcheon and Tomlinson certainly did better with theirs.

A cute kitten being pecked to death by a robin on a Christmas card would have been funnier than this jumble of a play by Andy Lynch (again), here assisted by Johnny Vegas. Vegas also played Les Dawson. The plot concerned Dawson being a surprise appointment to host the BBC's top Saturday evening attraction of yesteryear, Blankety Blank. The character action was between Dawson and a disapproving BBC executive, played by Nicholas Parsons. It sounded like a bundle of unwashed insecurities being laundered in public as well as a waste of the serious talents of Nicholas Parsons, the best straight man in the business.

A new comedy by Andy Lynch with an astonishingly starry cast: Clive Anderson, Ricky Tomlinson, Martine McCutcheon, Andy Parsons and Emily Head (from TV's The Inbetweeners). And now the plot. Who is this hairy old Scouser who accosts a career-minded female producer in the street? Is he just a stalker? It's directed by Dirk Maggs, the master of feelgood surround-sound.

Chat-show hosts make great fodder for writers as it's so tempting to imagine huge egos going hand in hand with those large salaries. This comedy drama by Andy Lynch finds Clive Anderson taking a wry dig at his own CV as a self-obsessed frontman who's not impressed when his careerist producer gets herself a stalker. The all-star cast includes Martine McCutcheon, Ricky Tomlinson, Andy Parsons and Emily Head, from Channel 4''s The Inbetweeners, in her first radio role.