Incredible Women

Rebecca Front and her brother Jeremy return with another five Incredible Women. Each of their invented characters works in a specialist field and each programme involves a guest appearance from a real-life specialist in that area. On Monday, the woman is Astrid the Robot and the guest is Professor Noel Sharkey; on Tuesday, Maureen Lipman guests on a profile of alleged enfant terrible of performance theatre Bella Hayman; while on Friday, Martin Kemp appears in a programme about the members of an 80s synthpop group called Christalle.

Rebecca Front interview

The Bafta award-winning actress on Julian Fellowes' new drama Doctor Thorne

Rebecca Front stars in a series of 15-minute spoof interviews, conducted by her brother, Jeremy. She plays a reality star, an MI5 whistleblower and Olympic equestrian, among others, and improbably nails every single one. That's talent.

In the hit-and-miss Woman's Hour 15-Minute Drama slot, this was a jolly show, though it can occasionally seem a little like Rebecca Front's audition tape: "Listen! You don't always have to cast me as a decent, plucky, middle-England type! I can do accents!" And I'd have put this series' episodes in a different order: her first character, Danielle Simmons, a TV reality show star, is a character that has been overdone, and Front's vocal mannerisms were reminiscent of Catherine Tate's. (Can we ban all "satire" about reality shows now, please? There's nothing more to say.) Other characters, such as reluctant whistleblower Helen McKee and equestrian Annabel de Lacy, were more offbeat and better for it. This is all a bit picky, by the way: Incredible Women has a warmth and charm that keeps you listening, as well as lovely writing, so give it a go.

Radio Times review

Written by and starring the siblings Rebecca and Jeremy Front, this astute satirical comedy returns for a new run. Each of the five spoof documentaries has Jeremy, as a Radio 4 reporter, spending 24 hours in the company of one of the "incredible women" of the title, all played by Rebecca.

Today we encounter Danielle, a reality TV star whose concept of "normal life" has been weirdly warped by having her every move scripted for her - it's a cross between TOWIE and What Katie Did Next. Various famous voices pop up as themselves - Eamonn Holmes, Joanna Lumley, Clare Balding and Dame Stella Rimmington included - and my favourite is Barbara Windsor, who makes a knowing return to her Carry On days as a sexually predatory 87-year-old singer.

Clever, funny, quality writing - this is just what we've come to expect from the Fronts.

When it comes to spoof documentaries nothing will ever top Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap. But the brother-and-sister writing-and-acting team of Rebecca and Jeremy Front have come pretty close with this superb observational comedy series.

Each stand-alone drama has Jeremy spending 24 hours with a woman of note, who also happens to be a total nightmare. Rebecca, of course, plays them all and they range from a TV psychic to a working-class opera diva, via a drunken war photographer, an evil-genius geneticist and a brash, TV-friendly hack and author.

Jeremy is joined in each "documentary" by real experts who attempt to throw light upon the ghastly woman in question. Robert Winston, Janet Street-Porter, psychologist Richard Wiseman and 60s photographer David Steen all turn in quality performances, but the stand-out new drama talent for me for is Jeremy Paxman.

He attempts to get a quip-free straight answer out of the abhorrent journalist Lucy Winterton but gives up when she wears him down with her, "I put the pun into pundit" responses. This is not just good, it's excellent and shows that quality writing can transform radio comedy into something that's laugh-out-loud funny.

Writer Jeremy Front (he does the marvellous Charles Paris mysteries among many other plays) and his sister, the actress Rebecca Front (On the Hour, The Thick of It, Lewis), teamed up to invent this series of fictional biographies of imaginary females. She plays all five of this week's amazing ladies. He plays the interviewer, spending a day with each to get to know them. They begin with stage and TV psychic Nicky Markham. You may think, as you listen, that you have encountered Nicky (or someone quite uncannily like her) before.