Maureen & Friends

Join Maureen Lipman for an evening of musings, monologues and amusing anecdotes about her life and popular culture.

After a career that has encompassed thirty odd West End plays, together with a vast range of television, radio, films, books, magazine articles and BT ads, the new Queen of Coronation Street will be entertaining audiences in these two Radio 4 comedy programmes.

Building on a monologue tradition that builds on the foundations established by artists such as Ruth Draper and Joyce Grenfell, Maureen brings her own particular brand of incisive humour and witty comment to the genre.

Characters include a Northern waitress with a passion for Cliff, a widowed chef who has fallen for her Polish builder and an Australian radiologist severely lacking in bedside manner.

She says: "What interests me is variety. I like a bit of a song, a joke, a sketch and a rant - I have opinions about MeToo and the state of public toilets and what it's like to be 72. I want something that makes me laugh and think and entertains me. If I could juggle with pigs or do acrobatics I would."

There'll be no pig juggling but expect some nimble and energetic storytelling.