Sarah Millican's Support Group

Help is at hand with Sarah Millican's Support Group

Hello, and welcome to Sarah Millican's Support Group.

We are back for a second series and we'd like you to get involved and be part of our Support Group.

Comedians seem rarely willing to share the limelight, much less any good gags. Not so Sarah Millican, who appears quite happy to front, but not dominate proceedings in her Thursday night Support Group series on Radio 4. Playing Sarah, a life counsellor and modern-day agony aunt, she tackles such thorny personal issues as, 'My mother is behaving like a teenager - she's 50 not 15!'. As good as she is in episode two, it's Simon Day who steals the show, perfect as Terry, a character who makes white van men sound like a highly erudite species. It's not laugh out loud, but plenty of titters were indeed had - and a note made about tuning in for next week's no doubt doleful dollop of personal woes.

Sarah Millican, who won the Best Newcomer award in Edinburgh in 2008, is a quirky comedian with a sweet Geordie accent and a touch of Mrs Merton about her. Her tours are a sell-out and this show, in which she plays Sarah, a life counsellor and modern-day agony aunt, certainly featured gales of laughter from a lifelike audience. The format revolves around discussing ordinary people's problems, such as "dating outside of your class" or how to cope living alone. One woman explained how she defended herself at night. "I've got a bat, down the side of my bed. A policeman said I could keep it there if it didn't look like a weapon, so I've got a ball there too." To me, this show epitomised the curate's egg that is BBC radio comedy. Some of the observations are witty and acute, such as Millican's technique for assessing whether a man's belly shape means he's a nightmare or a catch. "Front-loaded bellies that look a bit pregnant mean it's the drink, more rounded bellies mean he can cook." But other parts, such as when fictional characters were asked to explain what "posh" people do, were crass, lame and just not intelligent enough for the Radio 4 audience, accustomed to rapier-swift comedy of the calibre of Ed Reardon and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

Sarah Millican's Support Group is a warm and silly show, with comedian Millican broadening her routine into fictional characters and members of the audience also getting involved. The usual mish-mash you get when you try to put standup on the radio. Still, Millican is a welcoming host with a neat turn of phrase. Plus Simon Day's in it, and he always makes me laugh. "I picked her up in Aldi," he said, of an ex-girlfriend. "Literally. She was standing in front of the beans. I moved her away from the beans."

Radio Review: Sarah Millican's Support Group

This sparky life-counsellor comedy's blend of fiction and live audience interaction is an odd one, at its best when it freewheels into charmingly silly little asides.

You may not have heard of Sarah Millican yet - but you will. She's fast, frank and very, very funny. Already a name on the live comedy circuit, this series - her first on radio - sets her up as a modern-day agony aunt in a studio, "counselling" her audience. It rather reminded me of Mrs Merton at times, but that's no bad thing. The scripted "problems" are tightly written with jokes fired at high velocity, but it's her instant responses to members of the audience who dare to pipe up that prove her worth as a razor-sharp-witted woman.

Sarah Millican's Support Group

The lovely and delightful Sarah Millican has a brand new radio series starting this evening on Radio 4 at 11pm called Sarah Millican's Support Group. Here's a few words from the lady herself:

Sarah Millican's occasional spots on Mock the Week or Live at the Apollo have left me gagging for a larger showcase for the comedian's talents on the air. Here, she gets a solo show in which she takes the role of a life coach/agony aunt. With the help of a "support group", she looks at various tightly scripted, joke packed issues: additional interaction with the studio audience illustrates that she's just as funny, if not more so, when thinking on her feet.