Gillian Reynolds

The Penny Dreadfuls are a comedy trio. Radio 4 seems to think highly of them as this is a return visit with a play about the French Revolution. Richard E Grant stars as Robespierre, prime mover in the great Terror. Sally Hawkins plays 16-year-old Princess Marie Thérèse, imprisoned first with her family (Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, her aunt and little brother), later, after the execution of the king, in solitary confinement where Robespierre visited her. This play imagines the dialogue. Sounds cheery, eh?

Here's a diamond in radio's crown, John Finnemore's comedy about a small airline. He plays Arthur, daft son of Carolyn the doughty owner (Stephanie Cole, funny and sharp here in a role that suits her perfectly, unlike the ghastly one she struggles with in Coronation Street). Roger Allam and Benedict Cumberbatch play (superbly) the first officer and pilot who fly the plane. Today they're off to a little place called Qikigtarjuag, with a party of tourists who want to look at polar bears. Group leader Nancy rubs Carolyn up the wrong way. She'll be sorry!

We're half way through Tony Pitts's blackly comic series, about a strange seaside place where odd people live. At three in the morning someone is screaming. It's the kind of thing that happens in Shedtown down by the bay, where dogs arrive as parcels in the post. It's a bit like Under Milk Wood with touches of Father Ted. And it's curiously addictive, the vivid, dreamlike script given life by a marvellous cast, including Suranne Jones, Ronni Ancona and Johnny Vegas as Colin (a thoughtful melancholic). Tonight: a puppet show about 9/11.

The new Friday morning comedy on Radio 4, Polyoaks, is about the revolution soon to come when general practitioners take over from Primary Care Trusts in handling funds. Co-written by David Spicer and practising medical satirist Dr Phil Hammond, it has closely observed character types in Dr Roy (Nigel Planer) and his brother Dr Hugh (Tony Gardner) who pursue their father's old medical practice in the house they were born in. They have a canny manager in Betty (Celia Imrie) who has taken on the retraining of Dr Jeremy (famous from TV but recently involved in scandal) because the fee the state pays for doing this is so big. While the writers are careful to indicate that much of what is happening now began under the Blair-Brown governments they are scarily predictive about the dangers of putting large budgets into the hands of people not trained to handle them. Listen and learn. Frank Stirling, sharp as a hypodermic, directs for independents Unique.

Mr Blue Sky (Radio 4, yesterday) was billed as a "warm comedy" but as it drew towards its final episode it grew chillier, deeper. Mark Benton starred as the man in the title, husband, father, hopeless salesman with the infuriating habit (I know it's infuriating because I share it) of always looking on the bright "could-have-been-worse" side. His wife is flirting with the builder, his daughter has brought home a nightmare live-in boyfriend, his son has grievances, he loses his job. On top of all that he gets shot in the head then discovers he already has a potentially fatal aneurysm, about both of which he subsequently keeps silent. Funny? Well, yes. Andrew Collins, the writer, understands people. Anna Madley, for independents Avalon, let it be overplayed at first but brought it finally sailing home on a wing and a tear.

Here's daring. This new four-part comedy by David Spicer and the tartly witty Dr Phil Hammond is about two brother doctors getting to grips with the new National Health Service, the one just over the horizon where all the funds are to be transferred from area Health Authorities to General Practitioners. The power shift is momentous. The risks will be many. The cast is marvellous, including Celia Imrie, Nigel Planer, Phil Cornwell, Carla Mendonça. As there's no preview disc it remains to be heard whether the script lives up to the promise of its premise.

June Whitfield's radio career began in 1953 when she became the nation's darling as Eth in The Glums on Take It from Here. And radio, where she's appeared in top shows in every decade since, remains her first love as she reveals here in a conversation (about comedy, stars and how she learned the fine art of timing) with radio drama director Enyd Williams, linking a three-hour omnibus of those very programmes. There's a Take It from Here (1957), Crowther's Crowd (1963), The Frankie Howerd Show (1966), Punch Line (1980), The News Huddlines (2000) and a Miss Marple (directed by Williams) from 1993.

New comedy, written by and starring Dave Lamb. (You'll know his voice. He does the sarky commentary on Channel 4's inescapable Come Dine with Me). Here he's a man in the grip of conspiracy theories. He lives with younger brother Jim above a café. Dave wants Jim to make doughnuts but there isn't enough oil. Remember, Dave's the sort of chap who spies international plots in cooking oil shortages. This one, says Dave, will lead to a nuclear terror attack. Then Jim meets a nice young Yemeni woman and Dave's paranoia runs riot. And not just his.

This is a comedy about a local radio station in Birmingham. It aims to promote fellow feeling and harmony between Pakistanis, Indians, Somalis, Polish builders and every other next-door neighbour. The show is written by Adil Ray and Anil Gupta, is produced by Bill Dare (whose comedy credits are a mile long) and stars such fine performers as Felix Dexter (from Down the Line as well as this week's daily Woman's Hour drama Ancient Mysteries). But, as the BBC still dithers over the fate of its own Asian radio network, it's an interesting time to broadcast it.

That's Mine, This Is Yours (Radio 4, Wednesday) was a wryly romantic comedy by Peter Souter whose success on radio (Goldfish Girl, for one) sent him rocketing off to ITV where writers with a gift for the wistful are not cherished as much as those whose scripts come dripping in murder. Here, with brilliant Tamsin Greig and Alex Jennings as the divorced couple meeting to divide up the leftovers of their marriage and clever Gordon House as director, he shone again.