Press clippings
Lost Voice Guy's sitcom Ability being piloted for TV
Lost Voice Guy is adapting his Radio 4 sitcom Ability for television. The comic, otherwise known as Lee Ridley, is currently working on a pilot script with Katherine Jakeways.
British Comedy Guide, 4th February 2021Writers' Guild Awards 2019 shortlist
The writers of Derry Girls, Inside No. 9 and Detectorists are amongst the nominees for The Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards 2019.
British Comedy Guide, 4th December 2018Radio 4 comedies nominated in BBC Audio Awards 2019
A number of Radio 4 comedy series have been nominated in the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2019.
British Comedy Guide, 21st November 2018Lost Voice Guy's Radio 4 sitcom Ability to return for Series 2
Ability, the Radio 4 sitcom starring Lee Ridley - the comedian also known as Lost Voice Guy, who won Britain's Got Talent - is to return for a second series.
British Comedy Guide, 6th June 2018Crackanory Series 4 stories revealed
More details on the fourth series of channel Dave's storytelling series Crackanory have now been revealed, including photos and details on the stories, writers and readers involved.
British Comedy Guide, 21st December 2016Writers' Guild Of Great Britain 2017 shortlist announced
The writers of Plebs, People Just Do Nothing, Fleabag, Guilt Trip, The Pin and John Finnemore's Double Acts are nominated in the WGGB Awards 2017.
British Comedy Guide, 6th December 201614 comedy shows up for BBC Audio Awards 2017
The shortlists for the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2017 has been revealed, with 14 comedies in the running across the Best Scripted Comedy and Best Comedy with a Live Audience categories.
British Comedy Guide, 22nd November 2016We're back in Katherine Jakeways's fictional small market town, Waddenbrook. Sheila Hancock acts as all-seeing narrator of the everyday lives of its inhabitants. Jan is returning from a big trip abroad, and agonising. Esther and Jonathan are still trying for a baby. Jan is longing for Jonathan. At the supermarket there's a special on choc ices and the manager is still sharing his longing for his ex-wife over the Tannoy. Marvellous cast (Mackenzie Crook and Penelope Wilton among them) juggle exactly with such elements of homely surreality.
Gillian Reynolds, The Telegraph, 1st December 2011It would have been worth listening to the Radio 4 sitcom North by Northamptonshire just for Sheila Hancock and Penelope Wilton, but it turned out to be good in all sorts of other ways too. Setting it in the fictitious market town of Wadenbrook, writer Katherine Jakeways picked off local "characters" with the eagle eye of a rooftop sniper. For example, Rod relieves the tedium of managing the local Co-op by sending suggestive messages over the tannoy, while Frank and Angela celebrate their love by performing the worst ever version of Je t'aime.
Clearly a major comedy writing talent, Jakeways is as adept at coming up with stinging one-liners as she is able to create a choice gallery of English eccentrics. Casting Sheila Hancock as the narrator was inspired: her sardonic and sometimes downright snide interventions making a perfect counterpoint to the barminess of Wadenbrook's social round. I can imagine this one transferring well to TV.
The Stage, 5th July 2010New four-part comedy of the reflective kind, set in a small town bubbling with hope, fear and mistrust, a bit like an inland English Under Milk Wood, faintly reminiscent of Peter Tinniswood's lively studies in eccentricity. By Katherine Jakeways, it has the great benefit of Sheila Hancock as narrator, Mackenzie Crook as Rod, the supermarket manager, and the author herself as Esther, the very assertive instructor of both driving and judo. The overall plot is how they're all getting ready for a talent night, produced by Mary (fab Penelope Wilton).
Gillian Reynolds, The Telegraph, 16th June 2010