Jeremy Front

Jewish comedy Jack and Millie comes to Radio Four

There's a new show on the radio about an older Jewish couple.

Radio Times review

Written by and starring the siblings Rebecca and Jeremy Front, this astute satirical comedy returns for a new run. Each of the five spoof documentaries has Jeremy, as a Radio 4 reporter, spending 24 hours in the company of one of the "incredible women" of the title, all played by Rebecca.

Today we encounter Danielle, a reality TV star whose concept of "normal life" has been weirdly warped by having her every move scripted for her - it's a cross between TOWIE and What Katie Did Next. Various famous voices pop up as themselves - Eamonn Holmes, Joanna Lumley, Clare Balding and Dame Stella Rimmington included - and my favourite is Barbara Windsor, who makes a knowing return to her Carry On days as a sexually predatory 87-year-old singer.

Clever, funny, quality writing - this is just what we've come to expect from the Fronts.

Young Rebecca is in tears at the prospect of going to school, throwing her uniform and satchel out of her bedroom window. Is she suffering from school phobia brought on by starting "big school" as the so-called experts believe, or is there something deeper at play?

Rebecca and Jeremy Front's charming period piece explores the gulf between childhood fears and adult understanding of them with gentle humour and a great heart, while steering clear of trite nostalgia. Lucy Hutchinson is terrific as the morbid young Rebecca, while Samantha Spiro and Richard Lumsden deliver their usual quality, and Front (hapless MP Nicola Murray in The Thick of It) is commanding as the kindly headmistress who comes to young Rebecca's aid.

The return of the series in which the interviewee becomes the interviewer in the following week's programme opens with the writer, actor and comedian Jeremy Front asking questions of the writer, actor and comedian Rebecca Fron. Fans of the recent and superb Incredible Women series will know that the brother and sister have already proven their comedy worth as a Radio 4 double act, but this takes it to a more intimate level with discussions about their shared memories. Jeremy soon realised that his younger sister was ripe for ribbing and began years of mental torture involving a pixie and Ken Dodd. He's heard all of Rebecca's anecdotes before, but we haven't, so he's kind enough to encourage her to let rip. The Mike Leigh audition story is truly hilarious.

When it comes to spoof documentaries nothing will ever top Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap. But the brother-and-sister writing-and-acting team of Rebecca and Jeremy Front have come pretty close with this superb observational comedy series.

Each stand-alone drama has Jeremy spending 24 hours with a woman of note, who also happens to be a total nightmare. Rebecca, of course, plays them all and they range from a TV psychic to a working-class opera diva, via a drunken war photographer, an evil-genius geneticist and a brash, TV-friendly hack and author.

Jeremy is joined in each "documentary" by real experts who attempt to throw light upon the ghastly woman in question. Robert Winston, Janet Street-Porter, psychologist Richard Wiseman and 60s photographer David Steen all turn in quality performances, but the stand-out new drama talent for me for is Jeremy Paxman.

He attempts to get a quip-free straight answer out of the abhorrent journalist Lucy Winterton but gives up when she wears him down with her, "I put the pun into pundit" responses. This is not just good, it's excellent and shows that quality writing can transform radio comedy into something that's laugh-out-loud funny.

Writer Jeremy Front (he does the marvellous Charles Paris mysteries among many other plays) and his sister, the actress Rebecca Front (On the Hour, The Thick of It, Lewis), teamed up to invent this series of fictional biographies of imaginary females. She plays all five of this week's amazing ladies. He plays the interviewer, spending a day with each to get to know them. They begin with stage and TV psychic Nicky Markham. You may think, as you listen, that you have encountered Nicky (or someone quite uncannily like her) before.