Matthew Bannister

In the 1990s, I used to do a Sunday afternoon show on the late, lamented GLR (now BBC London). There would only be one person on the premises when I turned up and this was a tall, intense cove who unfailingly enquired whether I planned to play anything by the Pixies. This, I discovered, was Chris Morris, laying the foundations of a broadcasting career which would see him repeatedly fired by the very people who are now gathering to celebrate his contribution to British humour in special seasons on Radio 4 Extra and programmes such as Raw Meat Radio (Saturday, 7pm, Radio 4 Extra). The latter features collaborators, admirers and occasional firers such as Armando Iannucci, David Quantick and Matthew Bannister. There's also a repeat of his Radio 1 series Blue Jam on 4Extra at 11pm on Friday. Incidentally, if the powers that be wish to know how they can reproduce the circumstances in which Chris Morris did a lot of his best stuff, they might care to note that he was paid next to no money, given no help, and left the hell alone. I fear there's very little of that in today's BBC.