Wordaholics

Radio Times review

What would you be doing if you were "astroturfing", a word recently added to the Oxford English Dictionary? It is a malign and online practice, if that clue helps? No? Astroturfing is the sneaky marketing device of posting a positive review of a product or service online and pretending to be a member of the public rather than a company employee.

For all the laughs in this clever panel game -- and there are many -- it is the joy of learning the meaning of new, ancient and foreign words that make this addictive listening. And then there's the words-we-never-knew-we-needed round, where the best was "trage" -- the impotent fury you feel when someone sits next to you on the train.

Wordaholics was billed as a new comedy game show about the mystery and majesty of, yes you guessed it, words. With Gyles Brandreth in the chair, it was no surprise to hear Stephen Fry was on the panel, for the show certainly had similarities with TV's superior QI.

Sometimes Brandreth's smugness is a little over the top for my taste, but his endless enthusiasm for the subject matter did rub off. The obvious intellectual competitiveness, particularly between Fry and broacaster/comedian Natalie Haynes, also pepped up proceedings, and there was the added bonus that by the end of the half hour I had learned what a Melton Pad and a Piccadilly Weeper was - just in case I get asked at a dinner party in the near future.

Do you know what "Jedwood Justice" is? It is not, as the audience gathered for this new panel show obviously hope, some primeval punishment dished out upon the Grimes brothers. Fortunately, Stephen Fry knows exactly what it is, and host Gyles Brandreth is able to congratulate him with magniloquent verbosity.

Starting on Monday: Wordaholics

Wordaholics, Radio 4's new comedy panel game all about words, starts on Monday 20 February at 11.30am. You can find out more and you'll be able to hear the programme shortly after transmission on the Radio 4 website. On the Radio 4 blog Wordaholics presenter Gyles Brandreth takes us through his early years on BBC panel shows.