Richard Wilson (II)

Fact meets fiction as Richard Wilson narrates this personal "radiography", taking listeners on a semi-fictional odyssey through milestone moments in his life. Featuring childhood secrets, a decades-long quest for a lone glove and a cameo from an acting legend of yesteryear, it's whimsical and gently charming.

The wry script is more likely to inspire smirks than all-out laughter, but in Wilson it has a bona fide trump card. Delivered matter-of-factly in his lugubrious drawl, even the most outrageous flights of fancy can seem plausible. He might struggle to convince the listener that he truly coached George Best to football triumph, but for a moment we do wonder - and therein lies the true joy of this play. Like all the best tall tales, it's difficult to tell where the truth really ends.

Richard Wilson: my life story - but don't believe it!

The One Foot in the Grave actor Richard Wilson tells Roya Nikkhah why he's narrating a "tongue in cheek" story of his life for a new BBC Radio Four programme, Believe It!

Richard Wilson, actor, director and possibly the nation's favourite fictional grouse, got so fed up with being greeted with his One Foot in the Grave TV catchline "I don't believe it!" that he's now been persuaded to launch his "radiography". It's a heady mix of the actual with the fictional, written by Jon Canter, starring Wilson and a starry roster of support which includes John Sessions, David Tennant and Arabella Weir. Unpick the facts (Wilson is unmarried, private, passionate about theatre, politics and Manchester United) from the mischievous fantasies.

Richard Wilson investigates trains for C4's Dispatches

TV grumpy man Richard Wilson could not believe it when he was charged £280 for forgetting his railcard on a £15.85 train trip.

Richard Wilson investigates Britain's train networks

Actor Richard Wilson turns reporter to investigate train journeys from hell for a TV documentary - and finds himself forced to sit on the loo on one packed train.

Season's greetings from Auntie's Reckless Nostalgia department, where Ronnie Corbett is sitting in a corner, tweaking his glasses as he panic-knits gags for this 80th birthday bun-fight. Intended as a celebration of the minute octogenarian's career, it's a peculiar affair, with famous guests (Richard Wilson, Rob Brydon, Catherine Tate) scattered like novelty pencil toppers among wilting sketches about dongles and trapped wind. Still, there's an air of genuine affection to proceedings, and Corbett's way with a one-liner remains one of light entertainment's most enduring marvels. "I have my own treadmill at home. I'm only doing widths at the moment . . .")

With king of grouches Victor Meldrew still indelibly etched on British psyches, it's nigh on impossible to imagine Richard Wilson playing anything other than a discontented grump. Here he stars as Frank Ross, an ex-Latin teacher turned frustrated cabbie. In addition to his career nose-dive, Frank is forced to spend more time than he'd like with his cab controller ex-wife Barbara (Julia Deakin) along with the man she left him for- the owner of the cab firm that employs them both. On top of this, he also has his hopeless son Sean (Ralf Little) to contend with. Will Frank ever escape the gloom of his cab and return to the classics? A Russian oligarch, a box of human remains and a broken coffee machine all provide plenty of laughs - Wilson fans won't be disappointed.

Richard Wilson stars in John Langdon's comedy, playing Frank who used to be a Latin teacher and once was married but has now become a mini-cab driver. Even worse, he's working for his ex-wife Barbara, who's the cab controller, and her husband who owns the firm. No wonder Frank is looking for another way to earn a living. There are two reasons to think this must be a good script. First, Wilson doesn't do rubbish. Second, John Langdon is an accomplished writer who worked for Punch and was on the team of The News Quiz when it was still worth listening to.

Portrait of the artist: Richard Wilson, actor

'I soon realised that "I don't believe it" would be the price I had to pay for One Foot in the Grave's success'.

Incredibly, this is the 20th anniversary and the 39th series of the BBC's flagship entertainment programme - the only entertainment programme that is consistently and genuinely entertaining. Paul Merton's unstoppable flow of surreal invention never seems to dry up, while Ian Hislop must be one of the few people on the planet who can appear on television suffering from a burst appendix and still manage to be funny. With an election looming, the big challenge of the new series - according to Richard Wilson, head of comedy at the production company Hat Trick - will be "to take the spectacularly dull things that politicians say and get laughs out of them". The host tonight is Lee Mack, with Alexander Armstrong and Jo Brand booked to appear later in the run.