Gillian Reynolds

Stephen Mangan is Ed, leading a new life as a bike repair man in a village. And then we discover why in Marcy Kahan's smart, sharp, witty play. Twenty minutes in one day changed his old life utterly. He spotted a national treasure in the street, Pen Rhinehart (barrister, author, erstwhile circus clown) and called out to him. Pen was on a bike. Ed's cry made him wobble and fall under a lorry. No one saw. Ed ran away. Ren was taken to hospital by others. He's not dead. But Ed is being pursued by wildly assorted demons.

Tonight's diarist is Meera Syal, remembering growing up in a small West Midlands village. The diaries (and she shows them to the studio audience, taped up to keep out strangers and in tiny writing) were her friends, she says. The year she's picked is 1976 and she confides her anxieties about her weight, followed next day by a rapturous account of eating a Chinese takeaway followed by chips. She's philosophical about how hard we are on ourselves in our teens, sharp about how much has changed in 25 years, honest about why she did so much sport.

HQ (Saturday, Radio 2) brought the great Roy Hudd back to Radio 2 in a sketch show written by many hands among them those of his co-performer David Quantick. Quantick is a brilliant comic writer. As a performer, he has a way to go. Still, he warmed up nicely as the show went on and in the utterly unvulgar sketch where each of them played one of Nigella Lawson's breasts, overcame his awe of Hudd enough to stop reading his lines and let them bounce.

Ed Reardon is back (yesterday, Radio 4) and was in fierce form, broke as ever, scraping a living helping other people fulfil their three-book contracts. On sports reporters, early poppy wearing, austerity chic, other such annoyances of modern life, Ed speaks my thoughts, but better.

Roy Hudd and David Quantick join forces to keep the winter blues at bay. Here's a brand new sketch show full of old-fashioned fun, also starring Anita Dobson and Kevin Eldon, promising sauce and silliness. Both Hudd and Quantick have formidable reputations in this field, Hudd from all those years on this network's renowned News Huddlines (when there was a live band, a luxury only Wogan is permitted these days on his dire Sunday show) and Quantick as Radio 2's incumbent on its Blagger's Guides.

Ed's back! This would be good at any time, but in a miserable January and on a day when Radio 4 seems largely otherwise occupied with violence of one kind or another, the on-air presence of the peerless fictional curmudgeon is pure joy. Not even the multiple trailers advertising his return can ruin his opening rant, about the inappropriate wearing of poppies and such. Trends (in garments, themes, bad grammar, three-book deals) seem to be getting in Ed's way more than usual. It's cheering to spot so many recognisable people in Ed's universe of grump.

Socio-political comedy where members of the audience send suggestions for potential political action. There are fountains of proposals, most of which Thomas turns into furious fun. John, a long-suffering football fan, wants players paid on the pitch, in front of the crowd they've just let down. Thomas amends it to payment in cash. MOT tests for relationships, proposals on funding of political parties and the voters' right to allocate MPs' cars are also in the public mind. Thomas has a vast news grasp, a wit that's Olympically nimble.

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders are Radio 2's red hot (now that they've stopped doing TV) signings. The big coup is having Miranda Hart among the special guests. As she is undoubtedly the best new TV comedian in ages, sharper than Donal McIntyre, wittier than John Bishop, infinitely funnier than Alan Carr, more likeable than all three, this should be fun, especially as she'll bring her real-life mother for the Me and My Mum segment.

Say goodbye to 2010 with John Tweedledum (Jack Dee) and Jack Tweedledee (Peter Capaldi) as they review the year in Nursery Land, as written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman. Last year they did nightly 15-minute bulletins across a week. This year, what with Hislop and Capaldi's burgeoning TV careers not to mention all the cuts and changes inside the BBC as well as out, we have just this one delicious half hour of inspired unreality.

It was even unfunnier than Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! which returned to Radio 4 on Wednesday morning. This show has its devotees. They are people who find the idea of a person who makes mistakes with words and is less grand than he thinks both hilarious and original.

In the Christmas spirit, I refer them to Sheridan's Mrs Malaprop (b 1775, still going strong), Mrs Feather (on the old Light Programme circa 1946) and the hovering spirit of the late, great Jimmy James.