Tidal Talk From The Rockpool
- Radio sketch show
- BBC Radio 4
- 1997 - 2012
- 9 episodes (2 series)
Radio series written by Lynne Truss in which residents of the rocky shore reveal the truth about life between the tides. Also features Bill Wallis, Geoffrey Palmer, Alison Steadman, Greg Proops, Sean Power and more.
Press clippings
This series is odd for several reasons. Not only is this a show featuring monologues from various animals living in a seaside rock pool, but it's actually a remake of a show, using most of the same performers.
Created back in 1997 by Lynne Truss (her of the totalitarian approach to grammar fame), the original series consisted of six 15-minute monologues with no audience laughter. This version, recorded in front of a live audience at Radio 4's More Than Words festival, consists of three 30-minute shows, two stories per edition, with Truss introducing the stories.
The first of these tales featured Bill Wallis as a periwinkle who is fond of telling old gags, almost akin to an end-of-the-pier comic, who rants about how the English enjoy eating him. The second stars Geoffrey Palmer as moaning hermit crab who doesn't get along with the amoeba that lives and protects him.
I wasn't expecting much from this, but I rather enjoyed it in the end. The hermit crab story was my personal favourite out of the two, especially when he was panicking about being fished out of the pool by children with nets, causing him to exclaim that he actually likes the amoeba in a sudden outburst...
Overall, a likeable series and rather diverting. Fun in an unusual way.
Ian Wolf, Giggle Beats, 7th May 2012Tidal Talk from the Rock Pool review
Geoffrey Palmer performed the role of the Hermit Crab who just - just - about saved Tidal Talk from the Rock Pool from being a complete waste of 30 minutes.
Tom Chant, The Comedy Journal, 1st May 2012Lynne Truss, whose phenomenal bestseller Eats, Shoots and Leaves was born from the response to a programme on punctuation she did for Radio 4, puts on her fiction writing hat for three imaginary dialogues, all recorded at the recent More Than Words festival in Bristol. To start, here's The Periwinkle and the Hermit Crab, respectively played by Bill Wallis and Geoffrey Palmer. The Periwinkle is cheerful, mischievous, jaunty. The Hermit Crab is a bit of a misery, although for pretty good reasons. Turns out they share a common enemy.
Gillian Reynolds, The Telegraph, 30th April 2012