Mark Thomas - The Manifesto

Mark Thomas helps launch Deptford Lounge with free show

Comedian Mark Thomas is set to help launch a new creative space in Deptford on March 1 with a free show.

A fourth series of chummy but barbed collaborative satire. Thomas's unusually sharp, mildly eccentric audience members put forward policies that they think should be enshrined in law: the right to graffiti people who walk slowly along pavements, for instance, or a plan to reconfigure Britain so that half our car journeys are steeply downhill and require no fuel.

It's best when it's not as silly as it appears. Is the idea of giving everyone a £10,000 voucher to spend to stimulate the economy a worse idea than bank bailouts? And should the Lords be re-appointed annually via a lottery? Why not?

Q&A: Mark Thomas, comedian and political activist

'My most unappealing habit? My innate wish to find the best in everyone, even my enemies. And lying'

A quick thumbs-up for Mark Thomas, also on Radio 4, with his Manifesto. Thomas can be insufferable when he tries to be the British Michael Moore, but on this series he is an exuberant, rather than bombastic, host, teasing and cajoling the audience into their proposals.

Radio review: Mark Thomas - The Manifesto

Recreational drugs should be legalised for senior citizens - Mark Thomas endorses his audience's manifesto suggestions.

Socio-political comedy where members of the audience send suggestions for potential political action. There are fountains of proposals, most of which Thomas turns into furious fun. John, a long-suffering football fan, wants players paid on the pitch, in front of the crowd they've just let down. Thomas amends it to payment in cash. MOT tests for relationships, proposals on funding of political parties and the voters' right to allocate MPs' cars are also in the public mind. Thomas has a vast news grasp, a wit that's Olympically nimble.

The return of the show where Thomas sifts through suggestions for new laws and policies that might just make Britain better, if only politicians would use some common sense. It's a truly collaborative effort, with the initial suggestions and, often, the comic riffs that develop coming from the audience. In the main it's played for laughs, be they absurd ("Compulsory Stilton at primary school") or observational (sanctions for people who reach the top of a flight of steps then suddenly stop); but the productive atmosphere Thomas creates means the show can sidestep into properly thought-provoking politics, for example, the hard-todispute suggestion that nobody not on the electoral roll should be able to make party donations. It really sings when an absurd idea proves to have serious intent. So, should we invade Jersey?

When Mark Thomas invaded Jersey

A new series of Mark Thomas: The Manifesto is back. You can download Episode 1 on Radio 4's new Comedy of the Week podcast.

Before the new series began, Mark had some unfinished business to attend to.

Comedian Mark Thomas wins £1,200 over police search

'Over-confident' comic was unlawfully stopped and had his bag checked as he left arms protest.

It must be hard to get a word in edgewise when in the presence of comedian Mark Thomas, but several members of a studio audience managed it as they put a wide range of policies to the vote in his second series of The Manifesto. Thomas' style of humour is not always to everyone's taste, but this was entertaining radio comedy mixed with good helpings of opinion, history and politics.

In fact, while the mood was occasionally a little too worthy, Thomas was quick off the mark and produced funny and intelligent responses to suggestions. These included British prime ministers only ever being able to serve for two terms, all Ofsted inspectors having to teach classes in order to demonstrate the recommendations they have made and a campaign to bring back Saint Mondays (the old tradition of workers skiving off for an extended weekend).