British Comedy Guide
Listen Against. Image shows from L to R: Alice Arnold, Jon Holmes. Copyright: BBC
Listen Against

Listen Against

  • Radio sketch show
  • BBC Radio 4
  • 2007 - 2011
  • 16 episodes (4 series)

Presented by Alice Arnold and Jon Holmes, Listen Against uses actual BBC footage and presenters to create a surreal broadcasting world. Also features James Bachman, Justin Edwards, David Mara, Catherine Shepherd, Kim Wall and more.

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Key details

Genre
Sketch Show
Broadcast
2007 - 2011
Channel
BBC Radio 4
Episodes
16 (4 series)
Stars
Jon Holmes, Alice Arnold, James Bachman, Justin Edwards, David Mara, Catherine Shepherd, Kim Wall, Rachel Atkins and more
Writers
Bill Dare, Joel Morris, Jason Hazeley, Carl Carter, Matt Charlton, Sam Bryant, Gareth Gwynn, Jon Holmes and more
Producers
Jon Holmes, Sam Bryant and Bill Dare
Company

Listen Against is the show that prises the back off your radio, fiddles around with the programmes inside and then puts it all back together the wrong way round to create a surreal broadcasting world.

In essence, it is a mix of edited audio from existing radio shows and carefully prepared fake broadcasts.

The show is presented by The Now Show star Jon Holmes and Radio 4 newsreader Alice Arnold; with actors including James Bachman, Sarah Hadland and David Schneider.

After plenty of audio cutting and pasting and digital messing, Jon and Alice look back in amplitude at snippets from Radio and TV and invite listeners to rise up and shout at it all.

The series features cameos from the likes of Richard Bacon, Neil Fox, Jenni Murray, John Humphrys, Peter White, the Reverend Richard Coles and Julia Hartley-Brewer while Gaby Roslin and Ed Stourton play themselves burrowing to the centre of the Earth for charity in the Children In Need Mole Machine where they are attacked by pterodactyls.

Additional details

Production
Studio

Website links

Broadcast details

First broadcast
Wednesday 14th November 2007 at 6:30pm on BBC Radio 4
Most recent repeats

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