Richard Herring

Think of The Moral Maze on acid. No, don't. Dilemma, like the best panel shows, is based on a simple premise. "The show where we explore the big moral and ethical questions [that's The Moral Maze bit] by asking silly questions [that obviously isn't at all like The Moral Maze]".

The premise put me in mind of the board game Scruples that called for you and your chums to consider moral dilemmas: things like whether you would go unwashed for a year in exchange for a million pounds... and, no, you couldn't tell people you were stinky for cash. I forget how the rules worked, and with Sue Perkins's Dilemma, the rules don't seem to matter much either - but it doesn't matter because this first programme is very funny.

Sue Perkins has a nifty introductory script ("If Piers Morgan's house was below sea level, would you still care about climate change?") but really shines when she plays devil's advocate with the panellists as they calibrate their moral compasses.

Richard Herring opens by wrestling with the idea of selling his grandfather's war memorabilia to a Nazi sympathiser. Perkins's pushing turns questions with seemingly obvious answers into a fun debate. Everyone on the panel sparkles, but for me Dominic Lawson is the stand-out with a series of naughty interjections. His slide-rule of racism is hilarious (Perkins: "Well, that's racism sorted out"). When he "became" Amanda Holden, I wondered whether the BBC lawyers would allow it to be broadcast.

Acidic, and not in the way I mentioned at the start. A non-irritating, hilarious panel show.

Dilemma (Radio 4, 7.45pm) is a new panel show, hosted by inescapable Sue Perkins, a sort of Moral Maze for the lace-loosened, in which comedians Dave Gorman and Richard Herring, actress and writer Rebecca Front and pithy columnist Dominic Lawson discuss such questions as "Would you provide an alibi for someone you hate?" Sketch show comedy and topical satire have so far not exactly flourished in this slot. Management fingers will be crossed for this, hoping that the audience hasn't already scuttled off to other channels.

Radio Times review

Comedian and writer Richard Herring is no stranger to controversy himself and thus makes the perfect host for a series that tries to turn popular opinion about unpopular objects or people upon its head. "I'm going to turn the taboo into the to-do," he quips in his introduction before informing us that the item he is considering as having been on the end of an unfair press is the golliwog.

In a vox pop among Londoners - black as well as white - the overwhelming response to the golly is that it was a harmless toy, a symbol of its time that would not have a place today but was never an embodiment of racial hatred. Herring very cleverly introduces some marvellous examples of why this is not the case, the most appalling being a short story by Enid Blyton in which her choice of names for three gollies is too offensive to print. There's no preaching, just intelligent and extremely funny assessment, ably assisted by black comedienne Ava Vidal who pulls no punches in her views on this sorry doll. It's time to consign the golly to a museum.

Richard Herring's Objective returns

The script for the first Objective of the second series has been a tricky one to get right - the golliwog is an incendiary item and I wanted to write a show that was funny, though not disrespectful to the broader issues.

Richard Herring's Objective at the Edinburgh Fringe

Richard Herring was at the BBC venue at the Edinburgh Fringe with a one off Scottish special about the See You Jimmy hat.

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Does Barry Cryer need an introduction? He's a familiar face from TV, a familiar voice from the radio, and he's written comedy for most of the big comedy names of the last half century (and more) as far as we can tell: Morecambe and Wise, The Two Ronnies, Richard Pryor, Les Dawson and Tommy Cooper, to name but a few.

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