Miranda Sawyer

The idea behind Chain Reaction, if you haven't listened (why?), is that last week's interviewee becomes next week's interviewer, so we get a long list of famous people (usually comedians or actors) interviewed by a similar person who they admire or have worked with. Each person's interview technique is very different, so the show is hit and miss. The last two week's programmes, which featured Bob Mortimer interviewing Vic Reeves, and then Vic Reeves talking to Olivia Colman, have been tricky listens. I love Reeves and Mortimer but they don't do interviews, really. When they were together it was funny but utterly random; when Reeves talked to Colman, I had to switch off. He had no questions; he didn't really listen to the answers. Argh! It was frustrating.

This week, Colman talked to Sharon Horgan, and I enjoyed the whole show. Colman managed to take the mickey out of the interviewing process ("Do you have a favourite sibling? Do you have a favourite child?") and also get revealing answers. Revealing of both Horgan and herself, which made up a bit for the week before. So we learned that Colman can't cope with too much to do (and then her husband points out that what she's worrying about could be done in a hour), that Horgan prefers writing to acting, and that despite being born in England she considers herself Irish - "it's very important to me that I'm Irish". The chat brought out the contrast between Horgan's career-minded pragmatism and Colman's family-comes-first attitude. As well as both women's wit. Colman was a great host. Give her a show. Nurture the "talent". Manage it.

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I always forget that Radio 2 has comedy shows, but it does, and it boasts a promising new one in the form of Listomania. Hosted with panache by Susan Calman, Listomania's first show was last week, and boasted a selection of funny people I'd never heard of. This is a good thing: for the past five years, mainstream comedy producers seem to have been choosing their panellists from a list of about 10 people, of whom two are women (and one is always Rebecca Front).

That list is not one that has appeared on Listomania so far. Here are some that have: a list of World Cups that Wales could win; a list that compares a selection of My Little Pony characters against slang terms for illegal narcotics, and another that compares Judi Dench characters with Ikea merchandise. All terrifically artificial, of course, but cues for some good gags, especially from Lloyd Langford. I enjoyed the variety of accents on offer, too - Irish, Scottish, Welsh, English, Aussie - it's cheering to hear different kinds of lovely voices, rather than the standard upper-middle southern English that sweeps all before it on Radio 4. Plus: three women each week! All funny! Who'd have thought?

Over on Radio 4, I've been ignoring Trodd en Bratt say "Well Done You" for almost two series now, mostly because it's called Well Done You, and that phrase, along with others such as "Aw, bless" and "x more sleeps til..." and "nom" (for food), makes me want to throw crockery at the wall. However, I've realised that Lucy and Ruth, the women behind WDY, are perfectly aware of how irritating WDY is (as though they wouldn't be), and I've realised that this, too, is a properly funny comedy programme. It's a sketch show, which means it's hit-and-miss, but that's the nature of it. A skit involving two women comparing how little they'd spent on stuff had some great lines, but suffered from the characters sounding too much like Catherine Tate (Tate casts a long shadow over female character comics). But other sketches, such as the really loud New York tourists, made me laugh - just at their silliness, really - while the women working in a shop where every product had to have a double function were original and very funny. So, you know, Ruth Bratt and Lucy Trodd, well done you!

What I'm looking for is... David Sedaris: The Santaland Diaries. Half an hour of Christmas perfection: festive but wry, a teensy bit sentimental and very, very funny. These diaries, written in 1992, describe the time when Sedaris worked in Macy's as a Christmas elf (as a side effect, they made me yearn to be in New York). If you didn't hear the programme, I'm not going to spoil it, but his reminiscences include real-life lines such as, "You're an elf, and you're gonna wear panties like an elf!", "Step on the magic star and you can see... Cher" and "Goddam it Rachel, get back on that man's lap and smile!"

His writing is beautiful, his observation is on-point and his delivery is a delight. Download and save for those days when you feel Christmas spirit leaving your life like air from a balloon.

I have been enjoying Grace Dent's Saturday morning series on the history of radio comedy, The Frequency of Laughter. She's worked her way from 1975 to 2005, just by talking to two people who were involved in each five-year era. Her questions are insightful, and she creates a relaxed, slightly naughty atmosphere that brings out the best in her interviewees. A couple of them have been quite indiscreet, and what's made those indiscretions more enjoyable is that the producers have tracked down whoever they've been rude about and asked them what they remember. So, in the show that covered 1995-2000, radio producer Paul Schlesinger recalled Sean Lock and Bill Bailey being forced to read out episodes from 15 Storeys High to a reluctant commissioner, who said "I don't understand why this is funny", but grudgingly gave them a few episodes. And then we heard from that very commissioner, who insisted that this was "one of the most joyful moments" he'd ever had in his career, when Bill Bailey read for him. No mention of Lock, whose show it was. Hmm.

In the previous programme, covering 1990-95, Sarah Smith, another Radio 4 producer, admitted that she used to favour certain writers for the satirical sketch show Week Ending: new talent such as Richard Herring and Stewart Lee. Other producers didn't, and lo, we heard from one, Diane Messias. She explained clearly that she believed that topical satire should make a political point and that Lee and Herring didn't do this, creating their jokes by laughing at a situation. "Both methods are valid," she said firmly. "Except I'm right."

Review: The Frequency of Laughter; Raw Meat Radio

There was much to laugh at on the radio last week, not least a three-hour tribute to Chris Morris.

The Missing Hancocks review

My misgivings disappeared. I am very glad that these shows have been redone. I thought that the new actors might be off-putting, but Kevin McNally sounded astonishingly like Tony Hancock.

I like 52 Impressions with David Quantick a lot. In the show, Quantick talks about his first impressions of 52 people he's known or met in his life. (52 because he was 52 when he thought of the idea; also there are 52 cards in a pack, 52 weeks in a year. No reason, really.) So he hops between Björk and his sister, Michael Caine and Freddie Mercury. Last week he had some lovely anecdotes about Fidel Castro, David Bowie, Lemmy and the Queen, as well as his own dad, who was a certified accountant who checked the ledgers in town halls.

Quantick's script has some good lines too, though he can throw them away with his on-stage delivery. This show is recorded live in front of an audience, which I was surprised about - Quantick isn't the most practised of performers - but perhaps it was just to keep the format different to his very successful Blagger's Guide programmes. Because he isn't a stand-up, sometimes he lets his own jokes down, but I like the awkward naturalness of his delivery.

It can be quite hard to find something genuine on Radio 4, which is a place for honed and well-rehearsed opinions. 52 Impressions, along with much of Kerry's List, allows us to hear some funny humans, being funny and human. Good.

Kerry's List, the second series of Kerry Godliman's affable Radio 4 comedy, uses an outside production house [rather than the BBC], and I'm glad to hear it. Godliman's funniness is in her and her everyday life; it would be awful if she were made to be proper. Last week, her impression of Jamie Oliver ("Kick it in the nuts with a bag of turmeric!") made me really laugh; as did her ranting about wanting to have a mad house party to her husband, when he just wanted her to pass him a spanner so he could mend the washing machine.

Each show is based around Godliman's to-do list for the week, which might include things such as "organise photos, sharpen pencils, move house... Superglue, catflap, grout". These lists are not only familiar to all of us, they provide a structure to each show; a neat structure, but flexible enough to include flashbacks and phone-calls and scenes with short-sighted opticians as well as a bit of Godliman's stand-up. She has some great lines ("Isn't 'we need more space' just one of those things people say when they can't be arsed to tidy up?") and her on-air character doesn't feel too far away from her real character, which gives the whole show a natural, naturally funny air. I like it a lot.