Peter Curran (I)

Review The week in audio: Bunk Bed

Bunk Bed is a small, warm show, not an award-hunter but a lovingly made offering for your listening enjoyment.

Bunk Bed is a show that seems strange when you explain it. Now in its fifth series, the show is simply a recording of grown men Patrick Marber and Peter Curran lying in the dark in a bunk bed, talking about life, the universe and "the velocity you're expected to travel at, just to keep up". Though the result sounds like stream of consciousness, there is much sharp editing going on, and this is a funny show. Last week, Curran worried that he was never bored, while Marber confessed to being bored most of the time and, also, to being boring to young people: "As soon as you utter the two words "I" and "remember" conjoined, young people, understandably, just think, 'shut up'."

Last week, Curran, who often plays clips to trigger conversation, opened by playing one that referenced James Bond. Marber said he thought James Bond was a bit pathetic. "Is this you being a middle-aged man trying to claw back some sensitivity?" wondered Curran. And later: "Are you still a nasty piece of work?" Marber's contributions included: "Were you a bit Spandau?" and "All I can see is Old Ma Curran in a pair of grey shorts." They do make me laugh. "I think we're entering the pompous stage of our lives," remarked Marber. "Pontification occurs in your 60s, we're pre-pontification."

Actually, they're both quite modest, and it's nice to hear middle-aged blokes talking humorously about their mundanities, as opposed to bigging up their supposedly impressive achievements. Ahhhh. Taking a bath in the weird is always refreshing.

The new series of Bunk Bed is up and running. What a funny - ha ha and peculiar - show this is. Peter Curran and Patrick Marber lie in their beds and chat about stuff for 15 minutes. That's it. It makes me laugh a lot. It's their little hmms and mmms, the pauses between subjects, the deadpan delivery. And the topics. Last week we had whether celebrities have changed the way they wave for photographs, why Curran got a beating with a wooden spoon from his mammy... Though it seems casual, there's clearly a lot of thought behind it, particularly from Curran. Last week he played Marber some Napalm Death. He took it well.

Peter Curran and Patrick Marber's Bunk Bed wasn't quite comedy but it was certainly comic: two middle-aged men record their nocturnal musings on life and mortality, secure in the knowledge that since they're on different levels of the bunk, their eyes need never meet.