John Bird (II)

It is surprising that this radio-TV crossover about the venality of PR folk hasn't been more successful, especially as it stars Stephen Fry and John Bird. Here the eponymous masters of spin Prentiss McCabe try to make a tabloid newspaper more successful. Go on, laugh. It won't kill you.

"Are you clapped out, exhausted and shagged? Are you flabby, flaked out and flatulent? Are you just too tired, fat and sad to have a life? Then watch BBC TV. Does your brain hurt? Do you want to come home and collapse and rest your weary head? Then watch BBC television. It makes no demands on the brains at all."

The spin doctors of Prentiss McCabe are back for a final series of Absolute Power (6.30pm, Radio 4), written by Mark Tavener. Things get off to a bad start when Martin McCabe (John Bird) makes the fundamental error of telling his most important client - the Beeb - the truth about itself and its audience. Can Charles Prentiss (Stephen Fry) dig him out of the hole?

Devotees of Prentiss-McCabe, the most underhand, crooked and downright malevolent firm of political PRs outsideof reality, will be downcast to know that this is the last series for radio. So revel while the going is good (and while we anticipate the usual move to television, after Mark Tavener's creation made a successful fleeting visit a few weeks ago). Stephen Fry is in typically fruity top form as arch-manipulator Charles Prentiss, while John Bird is the slightly dithery but equally cold and calculating Martin McCabe. Tonight's episode gets the series off to a topical start, as Prentiss-McCabe, former servants of New Labour, find themselves representing the BBC.

The good news is that this ripper spoof of political PR is back on radio after its successful foray into television. The bad news is that this is the last time Mark Tavener's tales will grace radio. But then, that's what successful transitions to TV do for you. As before, Stephen Fry is Charles Prentice, a man so low he has to reach up to tickle a snake's belly, and John Bird (above, with Fry) is Martin McCabe, a representative of old-school PR, but no less venal for that. It is a testament to the power of spin that Prentice and McCabe can do the same job for new Labour as they did for the Tories - although they do feel uncomfortable about it.

Other than that it's good to note that someone at the Beeb also feels that February is the worst month of the year - the fag end of winter but still too far from spring - and that we need some special laughs to get through it. Thus the return of Absolute Power (February 5, 6.30pm). This Stephen Fry/John Bird dissection of the dark arts of PR has made a successful transition to TV, with the result that this, the third series on radio, will be the last, so cherish it.

Spin comedy makes screen switch

BBC Radio 4 comedy Absolute Power, which stars Stephen Fry and John Bird as machiavellian spin doctors, is making the switch to BBC2.

Mark Tavener, having killed off his booze-sodden BBC crime correspondent George Cragge, now concentrates on Charles Prentiss and Martin McCabe, minor characters in his comedy-thriller cycle In The Red. They have axed the Beeb's management so successfully that they now find themselves jobless and setting up as spin doctors. Absolute Power (11.30am, Radio 4) gives Stephen Fry and John Bird one or two nice one-liners - but nowhere near enough to sustain 30 minutes.