Diane Morgan

Radio Times review

Whatever horrors the world has endured over the past 12 months - war, pestilence, terrorism and Piers Morgan's new presenting gig on Good Morning Britain (only kidding, Piers), then we can always be sure of some traditional comforts. One is that Charlie Brooker and friends will extract some comic mileage in his now-traditional end-of-year round-up.

Joined by contributors Doug Stanhope, Morgana Robinson (complete with her extraordinary Russell Brand impersonation) and Diane Morgan as the fabulously vacuous pundit Philomena Cunk, laughter appears guaranteed. Page Three and Cecil the Lion may all have died this year, but smart, sassy satire is alive and well on BBC Two.

I first became aware of comedian Andrew Lawrence last year, when he caused a minor kerfuffle by moaning about '"political" comedians cracking cheap and easy gags about UKIP', the 'ever-creeping militant political correctness of the BBC' and 'women posing as comedians'. I filed the name away under 'tedious try-hard blowhards to be avoided like the plague'.

So, when I saw that he'd been rewarded by the militantly PC BBC with his own Radio 4 sitcom, my instinct was to avoid. However, when told how awful the show was I weakened in disbelief. I wish I'd stuck with my original instinct.

In There Is No Escape (R4, Tuesdays, 6.30pm), Lawrence plays a loser called Andrew who lives with his girlfriend in mutual disdain. The script consists of people being sarcastic to each other in the most charmless way, in a manner that people only do in bad sitcoms. Wise-cracking without any glimmer of wisdom. Diane Morgan (perhaps best known as Weekly Wipe's Philomena Cunk), who plays the girlfriend, deserves far better. Happily there is an escape. It's called the 'off' switch.

Seven questions with... Diane Morgan

Diane Morgan is a face many will recognise, having starred in countless sitcoms such as Phoenix Nights and Uncle, being half of comedy double act Two Episodes of Mash with Joe Wilkinson and also performing stand up.

Russell Kane returns for a third outing of the series filmed in front of a live audience at the fictitious venue. Once again, his stand-up is interspersed with sketches and films from up-and-coming acts, with Totally Tom returning as the inappropriate backstage crew, and Joe Wilkinson and Diane Morgan launching an unusual anti-smoking product. There are new additions, too, as selected via an open call. Luke McQueen stands out with his attempts to woo his ex with battle rap and James Blunt-alike Alex Smith serenades Middle England.

Russell Kane is rushing about BBC schedules with the same camp mania as he does his standup stage. Not only did he do Britain Unzipped and How To Win Eurovision, he's now the self-styled "fluffer" for a series of new-school sketch comics on Live At The Electric. There's "France's premier misanthropist and lover" Marcel Lucont, sharing his sex advice (drinking wine in a turtleneck, natch), slightly stale faux review show Film Fizz, and Joe Wilkinson and Diane Morgan doing their shambolic savant thing as Two Episodes Of Mash.

Mobo Award-winning grime rapper Lethal Bizzle puts in a cameo appearance in this new sitcom where the 'sit' lies in the chaos of a new fashion PR company and the 'com' lies in the fact everybody knows they're in a scripted TV show - except for two interns/victims each week. The artfully orchestrated set-ups within scripted storylines make for comedy of the toe-curling kind. With Kate Miles and Diane Morgan.

The announcer at the end blows a big raspberry at those "who didn't enjoy" Two Episodes of Mash. Well, that includes me. Supposedly a surreal sketch show, it's certainly weird, in that it fails to deliver a comedic punch on almost every level.

Tame tales of an app spewing lava, a stripper's trousers and animals entering the Ark are intercut with a flabby running gag about protagonists Diane Morgan and Joe Wilkinson settling into the studios of Radio 4.

To be fair, the libidinous snooker referee idea had promise, and I get what they're trying to do. If you like wacky played as mundane this could be for you.

This is gentle, absurdist, mini-sketch comedy, piloted in Radio 2 then given a series there back last autumn. These four new episodes come with a significant additional element, an animated trailer. To watch this go to bbc.co.uk/radio4. It's short, sweet and matches the humour of the show, the work of clever young artist Tom Rourke. But why is radio promoting itself visually? Because that's what reaches a generation who use smartphones to access everything, train times to pizza offers, with radio somewhere in the middle. The visualisation of radio is a growing field, increasingly used by commercial operators (to match advertisers to audience) as well as the BBC (always anxious to catch new listeners in any corner of their net). What matters still, however, is programme calibre. I think you'll find it here, in the company of Diane Morgan, Joe Wilkinson and David O'Doherty.

Russell Kane presents the sort of show we've all been crying out for: a showcase for various up-and-coming comedians.

Kane introduces sets from Joe Wilkinson (the scruffy oddball upstairs in Him & Her), Diane Morgan, Nick Helm and the Helmettes, and Totally Tom. We're promised music, short films and sketches as well as stand-up, with sketches tonight from Lady Garden, Jigsaw, WitTank, Humphrey Ker and Hari Kondabolu. That's a lot of names to squash into half an hour, so the pace should be quick.