Joe Wilkinson

Fringe cuts: Two Episodes Of Mash interview

In his second Fringe interview, Jake chats to deadpan stand-ups Joe Wilkinson and Diane Morgan about their act, Two Episodes Of Mash...

Edinburgh Fringe grilling: Two Episodes of MASH

Next up in our challenging chamber of chortles is Hackney Empire New Act of the Year winner Joe Wilkinson who, along with Diane Morgan (Mock the Week, Phoenix Nights), forms the "quite wonderfully funny" (Telegraph) duo Two Episodes of MASH.

Admit it. The continuity announcer says, "And now, award-winning comedy from last year's Edinburgh Fringe..." and your finger and thumb go into instant retune. Experience has shown that mere seconds may now stand between you and a verbal avalanche of copulation, defecation and general tribulation.

Experience, however, is not an infallible teacher. Had I heeded it I would have missed Two Episodes of Mash (Radio 2, Saturday) and this, the seventh of eight Comedy Showcase pilots, was quite wonderfully funny. Better still, it was brilliant radio. A queen bee conversed with a wasp who knew everything going on in her hive, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell talked about old times in a Peterborough supermarket, a fortune teller used a tarot pack made from footballer cards, we heard what it's really like at the end of the rainbow. It was comedy that leaves you seeing everything its way (as Hancock did, or Monty Python). Diane Morgan and Joe Wilkinson, its makers, may bear the stigma of being Edinburgh Fringe stars but if Radio 2 doesn't sign them up instantly I'd like to know where they're working so I can buy tickets.

The laudably ambitious Comedy Showcase series continues with a pilot of a sketch show called Two Episodes of Mash (Radio 2, 10.00pm), written and performed by Diane Morgan and Joe Wilkinson, two stand-up comedians and regulars at the Edinburgh Fringe. Taking their inspiration from some of the more mundane elements of everyday life, the show includes silly sketches with titles such as "Secret Agent 00-9062".