Danny Robins

Danny Robins: Newsnight's Party Anthems

Sick of the election? I have the perfect antidote to the stuffy policy discussions and political bickering. BBC Two's Newsnight have sent me on a mission to turn the election musical. I'm coming up with anthems for each of the three main parties - think 2010's equivalent of Things Can Only Get Better.

Danny Robins: Introducing Newsnight's Party Anthems

Newsnight has given comedian and writer Danny Robins the task of making this election more musical. Here he explains what his mission entails.

Described by one of the many jingles that stud the show as 'Top of the Pops meets Trisha', the premise is that music can be used to sort out problems. Actually, what it really does during a highly entertaining half-hour is illustrate them. So traffic wardens get a reworking of MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This (it's 'You can't park there'), while a reworking of Paul Simon's 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover becomes a list of ways for timid middle-class people to fire their cleaner. And so on. Robbins is aided by the musical comedian Isy Suttie and the remarkable beatboxer Beardyman. It's worth tuning in for him alone.

Lenny Henry is back on radio and on familiar territory - comedy, music and Birmingham. Unusually, though, this time he's the straight man as the classical music-loving son, Adam Sharpe, of the eponymous Rudy, the owner of a specialist record shop. This doesn't mean, though, that Henry doesn't get a few laughs along the way, which is only fair since the script by Danny Robins and Dan Tetsell is absolutely stuffed with them. The set-up can be briefly explained - father and son are estranged, father suffers slight heart murmur which becomes a full-blown heart attack so son will return to Brum to run record shop for nothing. But you'll go a long way to find better and more consistent one-liners and, as a bonus, some fine vintage ska and reggae music used to link the scenes. A joy - and there are three more episodes to follow.