Steve Wright (I)

We are back! The BBC New Comedy Award 2012

YES! We are BACK - bigger, better and totally over-excited. The BBC New Comedy Award 2012 launched today on Steve Wright's show on Radio 2 - we are now up and running and open for submissions.

If the names Captain Kremmen, Marcel Wave, Sid Snot and Cupid Stunt mean anything to you, then it's a safe bet that you're familiar with the work of the late Kenny Everett. Jeremy Beadle, Barry Cryer, Barry Took, and Steve Wright celebrate the work of a comedian who was always in the best possible taste.

Very funny (and rather rude) pretend radio show, real extracts from actual broadcasts mashed up into fantasy fictional contexts (Jeremy Paxman running amok and being chased by the police, for example). Jenni Murray, Richard Bacon and John Humphrys appear as themselves but others (David Mitchell, Evan Davies, Steve Wright) are edited into parodies of themselves. Excellent cast, tight production, sharp scripts and a glorious capacity to make telling fun of radio's daily excesses. The Robert Peston competition is a wow. Alice Arnold presents, perfectly.

Kenny Everett died 15 years ago, which seems an awfully long time to have been without the DJ/comedian who specialised in bad taste, anarchic humour and a biting line in satire. First shown on Channel 4, this affectionate tribute features Barry Cryer, Steve Wright and Barry Took, who celebrate the weird genius of Everett's career on radio and on TV, where his mix of nonsense, rudery and stabs at authority have been missed. The characters he created, such as Sid Snot and Marcel Wave, also defined his humour, although it's telling that this insecure comedian once said about his time on radio, "It's a good place to work if you are not really a jolly person but want to appear to be one."