The Gates

Up across the border, and luckily on the iPlayer, is this new mockumentary sketch show on BBC Radio Scotland.

Written and starring Pauline Goldsmith, Vivien Grahame and Jo Jo Sutherland, the series is meant to be a look at the lives of parents (or to be more exact, mothers), hanging around at the school gates waiting to pick up their kids.

Interesting ideas floated around the characters, especially Linda, a wannabe celebrity who (on her way to the school) calls up a glossy magazine letting them know where they can get good pictures of her.

My favourite characters in the opening, however, were a bit further afield. One was simply the show's monotone announcer, who was so inept that he kept reading the notes in the script literally (for example, saying "ironic tone" rather than speaking in an ironic tone). The other was the disturbingly creepy pious mother who seemed to delight in giving her son physical punishment.

This series certainly has its moments, and while it could be argued that it's patchy in places, it has more than a few laughs throughout.