Ruby Wax

Ruby Wax was on Radio 4's Chain Reaction this week (hooray! A woman!). Her turn to interview, and her guest was comic actor Harry Shearer - Derek Smalls from Spinal TapMr Burns and others from The Simpsons. Ruby is one of the best interviewers ever, in my opinion, and she didn't disappoint, hurrying Shearer on when needed - "so cut to when you're funny, we haven't got all day" - or pulling him short when he glossed over a tale. "Are you bitter?" she asked Shearer, an old friend of hers. "You still look bitter." I wish she still had her own chatshow.

There's a lovely bit of bonding going on in tonight's edition as last week's interviewee, Ruby Wax, selects actor and comedian Harry Shearer as the guest she would most like to probe. Both are from the other side of the Pond but share an astutely observed fondness for the British and, indeed, for Radio 4. Shearer is best known here for his range of Simpsons voices and as Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls, but in the States he's hosted a syndicated satirical radio show since 1983. Their combined wit and experience is electrifying.

In an hour, they packed in Ruby Wax's RSC reminiscences (she couldn't master the wench accent), a tribute to Richard Beckinsale, Neil Innes on Rutland Weekend TV (surely worth a repeat), a little bit about the over-rated Adrian Mole, Alan Carr's guide to Northampton, David Baddiel going back to school, Mel and Sue in Oxford, David Renwick's life on the Luton News and the evolution of Spitting Image. Great value for money!