Martin Jarvis

Martin Jarvis plays a news reporter in a little-known African country 'Karibu' that's in the midst of a rebellion. The hacks want to find - or manufacture - stories for the news. Unfortunately we weren't pleased to discover that its dialogue stank of Radio 4's 6.30pm comedy slot. It really deserves to sit along some of the worst of those like Claire In The Community, Pat Self On The Back and Smugger And The Self Satisfied.

Interview: Martin Jarvis on Taking the Flak

Martin Jarvis on parodying a bombastic war reporter and playing the voice of God in his new comedy drama series Taking the Flak.

A recently discovered Noel Coward play, The Better Half, written when he was only 22, was an astonishingly mature account of the way a couple connived to kill their marriage. Working from Coward's unpublished manuscript, Martin Jarvis drew crisp performances from Federay Holmes, Lisa Dillon and Samuel West.

When a play tackles subjects as ethics of have-a-go heroics, redemption and reconciliation, and the cult of celebrity, you fear that something has to give. But when the play is written by Alan Ayckbourn, stars Tim Pigott-Smith, Janie Dee and Alex Jennings, and is directed by Martin Jarvis you can lay those fears to rest.

It's the tale of Vic Parks, a criminal who, having spent nine years in jail for a botched bank robbery, has become a television celebrity. Now he is to appear on a TV show in which the host Jill Rellington intends to bring him face to face with Douglas Beechey - the unassuming clerk who foiled the robbery.

The production retains Ayckbourn's comic touch by asking why society is more in thrall to villains than heroes, and keeps the laughs dark right to the end.

Welcome to Blandings Castle, home of the Earl of Emsworth and the sublimely eccentric setting for some of PG Wodehouse's best-loved comic novels. Something Fresh is the first Blandings tale and has been recreated for the radio at the request of the Wodehouse estate by Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres.

The absent-minded Earl has accidently pocketed a priceless gem from a wealthy American, who happens to be the father of the girl this hapless son is set to marry. This is but one of the many coincidences that turn this comic-thriller-cum-romance into a joyous, laugh-out-loud romp through upstairs and downstairs life.

The cast list is as starry as they get: Ioan Gruffudd, Helen McCrory and Jared Harris are just some of the names. But special mention must go to director Martin Jarvis who turns in a delightfully batty performance as Emsworth. An absolute pleasure.

In Something Fresh The Classic Serial makes a welcome return to the world of PG Wodehouse. We're at Blandings Castle where Lord Emsworth (Martin Jarvis) has in his possession a valuable scarab which two rogues, played by Ioan Gruffudd and Helen McCrory, are after. Wonderful cast altogether, with Morgan Sheppard as Beach the butler and Ian Ogilvy as the voice of Wodehouse.

A comedy so gentle that it wafts through the airwaves like a will-o'-the-wisp, never touching the sides of your brain.

Christopher Lee's Carmelite friars are back doing what they do best, making inoffensive little puns about requests from rich men to bless their asses and braying for all creatures great and small. At pains to point out that they are not monks who shut themselves away from the world, these Friars like to see themselves as the 'original carers in the community'. It's a community that apparently is bothered with nothing more pressing than an organ suffering from a baggy swell box. A common complaint, you will agree.

Effortlessly performed by Roy Dotrice, the unmistakeable Martin Jarvis and Alfred Molina, it is perfect light summer fare, not too taxing and not too... well, anything much really.

A return to Christopher Lee's monastic comedy Kicking The Habit did not disappoint. Martin Jarvis' gently acerbic Prior and Roy Dotrice's somewhat deranged Brother Martin allied comedy to philosophical commentary. That tells us, if nothing else, that producing successful comedy is a complex affair.