Fraser Steele

Review: Phil Ellis Is Trying - Series 3

Phil Ellis is unlikely to ever become embroiled in a debate about the politics of comedians on the BBC. Instead, his returning Radio 4 series Phil Ellis Is Trying offers an almost timelessly absurd type of humour that can only work on radio, unconstrained by reality.

Review: Phil Ellis is Trying

The general fashion is for comedies to be about some underlying theme, or offering some insightful personal perspective. But if you know Phil Ellis from his stand-up, you won't be surprised that his first Radio 4 sitcom is an unabashedly old-fashioned gag delivery service.

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.

A new series of comedy shorts - all set in the same location - opens with the entertaining Floyd, which stars Charles Dance as a retired rock band manager now living in suburbia with his uptight daughter (Amelia Bullmore) and son-in-law (Hugo Speer). Written by Mark Warren and Fraser Steele (Never Mind the Buzzcocks), it captures the rebelliousness of the ageing rocker and Dance is wonderfully grizzled in the role. Less successful is Jessica Hynes's Patricia, in which she stars as an issue-averse local councillor. After causing an accident on her way to work, Patricia is greeted by a demonstration against her plans to build luxury flats in place of a nursery school.