Ed Reardon's Week
Encyclopedia
Ed Reardon's Week is a sitcom on BBC Radio 4
recorded semi-naturalistically in the style of a radio drama. It concerns the story of a curmudgeonly 50-something writer described in the show's publicity material as an "author, pipesmoker, consummate fare-dodger and master of the abusive email". The names of two central characters, Ed Reardon (played by Christopher Douglas
) and Jaz Milvane (played by Philip Jackson
), are references to the characters Edwin Reardon and Jasper Milvain, who appear in George Gissing
's 1891 novel New Grub Street
, which is set in the hack-literary
London of the late nineteenth century, although Edward was revealed to be his given name in the second episode of the third series and Milvain is referred to as Jaz Milvane.
The central conceit
s of the comedy are that Ed lives in genteel poverty with his cat, Elgar, scraping a living as a hack by working through commissions for coffee table book
s such as The Brands Hatch Story and Pet Peeves, a book of celebrity pet anecdotes. Much of this work comes through his agent Felix (John Fortune
) and Felix's assistant Ping (Sally Hawkins
, played by Barunka O'Shaughnessy
in the second and fifth to seventh series), an archetypal Sloane Ranger
who rejects the amorous advances he makes occasionally in early episodes.
He makes a small income from running a creative writing course at the local night school, where his lessons frequently mention the single episode of Tenko
that he wrote. Ed also earns an occasional £10 fee for taking part in identity parades at his local police station. He is an alumnus of Shrewsbury School
. The programme contains many references to the location of Berkhamsted
, Hertfordshire
, where Ed lives.
The series is written by Chris Douglas and Andrew Nickolds, and produced by Simon Nicholls
(first three series) and Dawn Ellis (fourth to seventh series).
Christopher Douglas explained where Ed's character came from: "Simon Gray
's published diaries were mainly about how badly treated he'd been by producers, actors, critics and electronic machinery. His impotent rage against his employers was one of the inspirations for Ed Reardon, the character I co-write, perform and in some ways resemble. Ed often rants from the point of view of appalled gentleman author, but he can also play the thwarted radical."
to California
and the lead role was taken by Sally Field
, the movie's faithfulness to the novel is in doubt. Milvane is a successful British Hollywood film director in the mould of Tony Scott
or Adrian Lyne
. Ed's only other screen credit is a 1982 episode of the BBC
wartime drama, Tenko
("Escape from the Bamboo Noose") and, based on the evidence provided in the drama so far, this may well be his only other non-coffee table book project. During his early career, Ed also wrote various stage plays, all of which seem to have been both unfortunately timed and titled, bearing striking (yet apparently accidental) resemblances to works by Willy Russell and Mike Leigh
.
Ed's father, Sidney, made an appearance in the episode "Dad". Appearing just as bad-tempered and impatient as Ed, Sidney demonstrated more understanding of popular culture by being familiar with the children's television programme Dick and Dom in da Bungalow
. He emigrated to Australia
for tax reasons with a new partner, following Ed's failed attempt to secure his inheritance.
group spends a lot of time giving him advice and making comments about his general lack of achievement, between complaints about being forced to watch his Tenko episode endlessly. Ed also plays in a Dixieland jazz
band with his more successful friends, his instrument of choice being the jug
. In the first episode Jaz sits in with them on trumpet, making Ed's contribution seem anaemic by comparison.
Ed has lived in a one-bedroom flat with his cat Elgar in Berkhamsted
, in the borough of Dacorum
, Hertfordshire
, ever since he sold his London
home after a messy divorce. This is described as "living at the cutting edge, or to be more accurate, "above The Cutting Edge", as he has a flat over a hairdressing salon of this name."
Ed was seen heading into surgery for coronary bypass (necessitated by his lifelong affair with "beer and baccy
") at the end of the second series, with Felix on the one hand, abetted by Jaz, pushing him to start on a new novel for Jaz to film ("Put plenty of cricket
in it." says Felix) while Ping is urging him to commit to Pet Peeves 2, the fee for which will be needed to pay his hospital bill.
At the end of the fourth series Ed became involved with the popular novelist Mary Potter (Sally Grace
), spending several nights a week together by the start of the fifth series.
; one tirade finds Ed receiving several copies of the book as gifts for his birthday and working out how much in royalties Truss will have received because of the book sales).
, who also co-writes the series with Andrew Nickolds.
A spin-off book was published in November 2005.
, at their 32nd Annual Television and Radio Awards in 2006 and at the 37th in 2011.
Series 1 was repeated in August-September 2007 on BBC 7
.
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
recorded semi-naturalistically in the style of a radio drama. It concerns the story of a curmudgeonly 50-something writer described in the show's publicity material as an "author, pipesmoker, consummate fare-dodger and master of the abusive email". The names of two central characters, Ed Reardon (played by Christopher Douglas
Christopher Douglas (UK actor)
Christopher Douglas is a United Kingdom actor and writer.Douglas left school at 15 and spent two years in his early twenties researching the life of Douglas Jardine the England test cricketer. This research formed the basis of a biography of Jardine in 2002...
) and Jaz Milvane (played by Philip Jackson
Philip Jackson (actor)
Philip Jackson is an English actor, known for his many television and film roles, most notably as Chief Inspector Japp in the television series Poirot and as Abbot Hugo, one of the recurring adversaries in the cult 1980s series Robin of Sherwood. Jackson was born in Retford, Nottinghamshire...
), are references to the characters Edwin Reardon and Jasper Milvain, who appear in George Gissing
George Gissing
George Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published twenty-three novels between 1880 and 1903. From his early naturalistic works, he developed into one of the most accomplished realists of the late-Victorian era.-Early life:...
's 1891 novel New Grub Street
New Grub Street
New Grub Street is a novel by George Gissing published in 1891, which is set in the literary and journalistic circles of 1880s London. Gissing revised and shortened the novel for a French edition of 1901....
, which is set in the hack-literary
Hack writer
Hack writer is a colloquial and usually pejorative term used to refer to a writer who is paid to write low-quality, rushed articles or books "to order", often with a short deadline. In a fiction-writing context, the term is used to describe writers who are paid to churn out sensational,...
London of the late nineteenth century, although Edward was revealed to be his given name in the second episode of the third series and Milvain is referred to as Jaz Milvane.
The central conceit
Central conceit
In drama and other art forms, the central conceit of a work of fiction is the underlying fictitious assumption which must be accepted by the audience with suspension of disbelief so the plot may be seen as plausible...
s of the comedy are that Ed lives in genteel poverty with his cat, Elgar, scraping a living as a hack by working through commissions for coffee table book
Coffee table book
A coffee table book is a hardcover book that is intended to sit on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for...
s such as The Brands Hatch Story and Pet Peeves, a book of celebrity pet anecdotes. Much of this work comes through his agent Felix (John Fortune
John Fortune
John Fortune is a British satirist, comedian writer and actor, best known for his work with John Bird and Rory Bremner on the TV series Bremner, Bird and Fortune. He was educated at Bristol Cathedral School and King's College, Cambridge, where he was to meet and form a lasting friendship with John...
) and Felix's assistant Ping (Sally Hawkins
Sally Hawkins
Sally Cecilia Hawkins is an English actress. Her performance as Poppy in the 2008 film Happy-Go-Lucky won her several international awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy...
, played by Barunka O'Shaughnessy
Barunka O'Shaughnessy
Barunka O'Shaughnessy is a British actress, writer and producer.O'Shaughnessy began performing comedy while a student at Cambridge University. After her graduation, she collaborated with university friends Lucy Montgomery and James Bachman to write and perform shows at the Edinburgh Festival,...
in the second and fifth to seventh series), an archetypal Sloane Ranger
Sloane Ranger
The term Sloane Ranger refers to a stereotype in the UK of young, upper class or upper-middle-class women, or men who share distinctive and common lifestyle traits...
who rejects the amorous advances he makes occasionally in early episodes.
He makes a small income from running a creative writing course at the local night school, where his lessons frequently mention the single episode of Tenko
Tenko (TV series)
Tenko is a television drama, co-produced by the BBC and the ABC. A total of thirty episodes were produced between 1981 and 1984 for women, followed by a one-off special , Tenko Reunion, in 1985 - also for women in mind.The series dealt with the experiences of British, Australian and Dutch women...
that he wrote. Ed also earns an occasional £10 fee for taking part in identity parades at his local police station. He is an alumnus of Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School is a co-educational independent school for pupils aged 13 to 18, founded by Royal Charter in 1552. The present campus to which the school moved in 1882 is located on the banks of the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England...
. The programme contains many references to the location of Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted
-Climate:Berkhamsted experiences an oceanic climate similar to almost all of the United Kingdom.-Castle:...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, where Ed lives.
The series is written by Chris Douglas and Andrew Nickolds, and produced by Simon Nicholls
Simon Nicholls
Simon Nicholls is a radio and TV comedy producer at the BBC.When Ed Reardon approached Nicholls about an idea for a new radio show, "he was delighted...
(first three series) and Dawn Ellis (fourth to seventh series).
Origins of the character of Ed
Speaking on Pick of the WeekPick of the Week
Pick of the Week is a Canadian anthology television series which aired on CBC Television from 1967 to 1969.-Premise:Selected episodes of CBC's prime time series were rebroadcast in this weekday morning time slot such as Man Alive, Newsmagazine, The Public Eye, Singalong Jubilee and This Land...
Christopher Douglas explained where Ed's character came from: "Simon Gray
Simon Gray
Simon James Holliday Gray, CBE , was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years...
's published diaries were mainly about how badly treated he'd been by producers, actors, critics and electronic machinery. His impotent rage against his employers was one of the inspirations for Ed Reardon, the character I co-write, perform and in some ways resemble. Ed often rants from the point of view of appalled gentleman author, but he can also play the thwarted radical."
Ed's literary background
Ed considers himself a serious writer but the evidence is suspect. His one and only novel, Who Would Fardels Bear?, was published in the 1970s, and was adapted into a film (Sister Mom) by Ed's friend, Jaz Milvane (played by Philip Jackson). Since the setting was moved from OldhamOldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and the lead role was taken by Sally Field
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...
, the movie's faithfulness to the novel is in doubt. Milvane is a successful British Hollywood film director in the mould of Tony Scott
Tony Scott
Anthony D. L. "Tony" Scott is an English film director. His films include Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable...
or Adrian Lyne
Adrian Lyne
Adrian Lyne is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for directing films that focus on sexually charged characters and often uses natural light, a fog machine and other effects to create eroticized atmospheres...
. Ed's only other screen credit is a 1982 episode of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
wartime drama, Tenko
Tenko (TV series)
Tenko is a television drama, co-produced by the BBC and the ABC. A total of thirty episodes were produced between 1981 and 1984 for women, followed by a one-off special , Tenko Reunion, in 1985 - also for women in mind.The series dealt with the experiences of British, Australian and Dutch women...
("Escape from the Bamboo Noose") and, based on the evidence provided in the drama so far, this may well be his only other non-coffee table book project. During his early career, Ed also wrote various stage plays, all of which seem to have been both unfortunately timed and titled, bearing striking (yet apparently accidental) resemblances to works by Willy Russell and Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh
Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...
.
Ed's books
- Who Would Fardels Bear?
- Jane Seymour's Household Hints
- The Brands Hatch Story
- Pet Peeves (publisher: Sow's Ear)
- Nigel Mansell's Love Poetry
- Pet Peeves 2
- Postal Panoply (publisher: Septred Isle [sic])
- Shed 22lb in a Week the Vanessa Feltz Way
- Armando Iannucci's Carpathian Walks
- John Ketley's Big Book of Weather
- Kevin Pietersen's Big BBQ Book
- A taste of Paraquat, The Reigate Poisoner Autobiography
- The Stig's book of Speed Cameras (Series 7, Episode 5)
Ed's radio work
- The Amazing True Story Of The South Tring Bubble
- The South Tring Bubble (Reworking of the above for Hemel Sound)
- Cheese Cricket (Pilot for a radio panel show)
Ed's stage work
- Educating Peter
- Stanley Valentine
- Blood Sisters
- Alastair's Party
Ed's family
Ed has a son and a daughter, Jake and Eli, who make occasional appearances. An insight into Ed as a father is given in "The Operations", where Jake complains: "that's all we ever got from you... a sarcastic one-liner followed by a 'now leave me alone to sink into drunken stupor of self-loathing."Ed's father, Sidney, made an appearance in the episode "Dad". Appearing just as bad-tempered and impatient as Ed, Sidney demonstrated more understanding of popular culture by being familiar with the children's television programme Dick and Dom in da Bungalow
Dick and Dom in da Bungalow
Dick and Dom in da Bungalow was a CBBC children's entertainment television series presented by the duo Dick and Dom...
. He emigrated to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
for tax reasons with a new partner, following Ed's failed attempt to secure his inheritance.
Ed's current life
Ed teaches a screenwriting class, held weekly at the local sports centre. This adult educationAdult education
Adult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. Adult education takes place in the workplace, through 'extension' school or 'school of continuing education' . Other learning places include folk high schools, community colleges, and lifelong learning centers...
group spends a lot of time giving him advice and making comments about his general lack of achievement, between complaints about being forced to watch his Tenko episode endlessly. Ed also plays in a Dixieland jazz
Dixieland Jazz
Dixieland Jazz was a Canadian music television series which aired on CBC Television in 1954.-Premise:The series host was Trump Davidson, a cornet player. He also hosted a radio music series on CBC's Trans-Canada Network.-Scheduling:...
band with his more successful friends, his instrument of choice being the jug
Jug (musical instrument)
The jug as a musical instrument reached its height of popularity in the 1920s, when jug bands, such as Cannon's Jug Stompers were popular. The jug is just that: an empty jug played with the mouth...
. In the first episode Jaz sits in with them on trumpet, making Ed's contribution seem anaemic by comparison.
Ed has lived in a one-bedroom flat with his cat Elgar in Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted
-Climate:Berkhamsted experiences an oceanic climate similar to almost all of the United Kingdom.-Castle:...
, in the borough of Dacorum
Dacorum
The Borough of Dacorum is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England that includes the towns of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring and Kings Langley. The district, which was formed in 1974, had a population of 137,799 in 2001...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, ever since he sold his London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
home after a messy divorce. This is described as "living at the cutting edge, or to be more accurate, "above The Cutting Edge", as he has a flat over a hairdressing salon of this name."
Ed was seen heading into surgery for coronary bypass (necessitated by his lifelong affair with "beer and baccy
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
") at the end of the second series, with Felix on the one hand, abetted by Jaz, pushing him to start on a new novel for Jaz to film ("Put plenty of cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
in it." says Felix) while Ping is urging him to commit to Pet Peeves 2, the fee for which will be needed to pay his hospital bill.
At the end of the fourth series Ed became involved with the popular novelist Mary Potter (Sally Grace
Sally Grace
Sally Grace is a British actress who has worked extensively in radio and animation.She was a long-standing member of the team on Week Ending, the long-running BBC Radio 4 topical satirical sketch show, where she was the voice of Margaret Thatcher from 1983 onwards, and her work with Ken Bruce on...
), spending several nights a week together by the start of the fifth series.
Humour
Much humour comes from Ed's rants and inability to stop himself getting carried away in his angry tirades, often triggered by learning that somebody younger than him is proving more successful (such as the author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Lynne TrussLynne Truss
Lynne Truss is an English writer and journalist, best known for her popular book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.-Early life:...
; one tirade finds Ed receiving several copies of the book as gifts for his birthday and working out how much in royalties Truss will have received because of the book sales).
Writers
Ed Reardon is played by actor Christopher Douglas (UK actor)Christopher Douglas (UK actor)
Christopher Douglas is a United Kingdom actor and writer.Douglas left school at 15 and spent two years in his early twenties researching the life of Douglas Jardine the England test cricketer. This research formed the basis of a biography of Jardine in 2002...
, who also co-writes the series with Andrew Nickolds.
A spin-off book was published in November 2005.
Awards
Ed Reardon's Week has twice been voted Best Radio Programme by the Broadcasting Press GuildBroadcasting Press Guild
The Broadcasting Press Guild is a British association of journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about television, radio and the media generally....
, at their 32nd Annual Television and Radio Awards in 2006 and at the 37th in 2011.
Stage Version
Christopher Douglas and Andrew Nickolds have written a stage version, Ed Reardon: A Writer's Burden, which will be seen at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, before a national tour in 2012.Episode list
Series 1 was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January and February 2005. Series 2 ran from December 2005 until January 2006, Series 3 from 15 December 2006 to 19 January 2007 and Series 4 from November 2007 to December 2007. Series 5 began weekly transmission on Radio 4 on Monday 6 October 2008 at 11:30am. Each episode is available as streaming audio over the internet, through the BBC's Listen Again service, for one week after broadcast.Series 1 was repeated in August-September 2007 on BBC 7
BBC 7
BBC Radio 4 Extra, formerly known as BBC 7 and BBC Radio 7, is a British digital radio station broadcasting comedy, drama, and children's programming nationally 24 hours a day. It is the principal broadcasting outlet for the BBC's archive of spoken-word entertainment...
.
Series 1
| Episode | Title | Original Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Swim | 7 January 2005 |
| 2 | Pulp Non-Fiction | 14 January 2005 |
| 3 | Holby City | 21 January 2005 |
| 4 | The Old Lock-Keeper | 28 January 2005 |
| 5 | The Winona Defence | 4 February 2005 |
| 6 | King of the Road | 11 February 2005 |
Series 2
| Episode | Title | Original Airdate | Guest star |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogue Mail | 21 December 2005 | |
| 2 | The Speech | 28 December 2005 | |
| 3 | The Last Laugh | 4 January 2006 | Andy Hamilton Andy Hamilton Andrew Neil Hamilton is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter and radio dramatist.-Early life:... as Terry Savage |
| 4 | Our Man In Berkhamsted | 11 January 2006 | |
| 5 | A Hint of Calvados | 18 January 2006 | Chris Addison Chris Addison Chris Addison is an English stand-up comedian, writer and actor. He is known for his lecture-style comedy shows, two of which he later adapted for BBC Radio 4... as TV boss |
| 6 | The Operation | 25 January 2006 |
Series 3
| Episode | Title | Original Airdate | Guest star |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Name-Check | 15 December 2006 | Sean Lock Sean Lock Sean Lock is an English comedian and actor. He began his comedy career as a stand-up comedian. He won the British Comedy Award in 2000 in the category of Best Live Comic, and was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. He is also well known for his appearances on television and radio... as The plumber |
| 2 | Dad | 22 December 2006 | David Warner David Warner (actor) David Warner is an English actor who is known for playing both romantic leads and sinister or villainous characters, both in film and animation... as Sidney (Ed's father) |
| 3 | Undercover | 29 December 2006 | |
| 4 | The Dig | 5 January 2007 | Mark Watson Mark Watson (comedian) Mark Andrew Watson is an English stand-up comedian and novelist.-Early life:Watson was born in Bristol to Welsh parents and attended Henleaze Junior school and then Bristol Grammar School, where he won the prize of 'Gabbler of the year', before going to Queens' College, Cambridge, where he studied... as Tom |
| 5 | Murder Most Rewritten | 12 January 2007 | |
| 6 | The Libel Action | 19 January 2007 | |
Series 4
| Episode | Title | Original Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | January the 31st | 16 November 2007 |
| 2 | Ruth and Reconciliation | 23 November 2007 |
| 3 | The Wrong Fleece | 30 November 2007 |
| 4 | The Old Boys Network | 7 December 2007 |
| 5 | Role Reversal | 14 December 2007 |
| 6 | Trimarans That Pass in the Night | 21 December 2007 |
Series 5
| Episode | Title | Original Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Last Miaow | 6 October 2008 |
| 2 | The CV of Dorian Gray | 13 October 2008 |
| 3 | Anger Management | 20 October 2008 |
| 4 | Educating Peter | 27 October 2008 |
| 5 | The Great Escape | 3 November 2008 |
| 6 | Granddad | 10 November 2008 |
Series 6
| Episode | Title | Original Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Charterhouse Redemption | 11 January 2010 |
| 2 | Charity Begins Next Door | 18 January 2010 |
| 3 | The Cruise | 25 January 2010 |
| 4 | Cheese Cricket | 1 February 2010 |
| 5 | A Bottle of Ulterio Motivo | 8 February 2010 |
| 6 | Elgar Writes | 15 February 2010 |
Series 7
| Episode | Title | Original Airdate | Guest star |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | In The Current Climate | 10 January 2011 | |
| 2 | From Bean To Cup | 17 January 2011 | Paul Merton Paul Merton Paul Merton is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy... as houseowner |
| 3 | Become a Successful Writer | 24 January 2011 | |
| 4 | Parsnip Junction | 31 January 2011 | Geoffrey Palmer Geoffrey Palmer (actor) Geoffrey Dyson Palmer, OBE is an English actor, best known for his roles in sitcoms such as Butterflies and As Time Goes By.-Career:... as Charles |
| 5 | Writer in Residence | 7 February 2011 | |
| 6 | Summer of '76 | 14 February 2011 | Jenny Agutter Jenny Agutter Jennifer Ann "Jenny" Agutter is an English film and television actress. She began her career as a child actress in the mid 1960s, starring in the BBC television series The Railway Children and the film adaptation of the same book, before moving on to adult roles and relocating to Hollywood.She... as Fiona |
Cast list
- Ed Reardon - Christopher Douglas
- Felix - John FortuneJohn FortuneJohn Fortune is a British satirist, comedian writer and actor, best known for his work with John Bird and Rory Bremner on the TV series Bremner, Bird and Fortune. He was educated at Bristol Cathedral School and King's College, Cambridge, where he was to meet and form a lasting friendship with John...
- Ping (Pandora Ingleby-Thomas) - Sally HawkinsSally HawkinsSally Cecilia Hawkins is an English actress. Her performance as Poppy in the 2008 film Happy-Go-Lucky won her several international awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy...
, series two and five to seven: Barunka O'ShaughnessyBarunka O'ShaughnessyBarunka O'Shaughnessy is a British actress, writer and producer.O'Shaughnessy began performing comedy while a student at Cambridge University. After her graduation, she collaborated with university friends Lucy Montgomery and James Bachman to write and perform shows at the Edinburgh Festival,...
. Ping has a sister Py (Pyrocanthus) who appears in the Series 7 episode "Parsnip Junction", played by Katy WixKaty WixKaty Wix is a Welsh actress who has appeared in Not Going Out, Comic Relief Special, Rush Hour, Miranda and Torchwood.She also has numerous recurring roles in Horrible Histories...
. - Jaz Milvane - Philip JacksonPhilip Jackson (actor)Philip Jackson is an English actor, known for his many television and film roles, most notably as Chief Inspector Japp in the television series Poirot and as Abbot Hugo, one of the recurring adversaries in the cult 1980s series Robin of Sherwood. Jackson was born in Retford, Nottinghamshire...
- Olive - Stephanie ColeStephanie ColeStephanie Cole, OBE is an English stage, television, and film actress, best known for playing characters a great deal older than her actual age.-Early life:...
- Frank - David CannDavid CannDavid Cann is a British actor who has had many roles in theatre and television.He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1973 and spent many years working in theatre, including various Shakespeare plays before eventually branching out into television, including roles in the BBC...
- Pearl - Rita MayRita May (actress)Rita May is a British actress. She has appeared in popular television series such as Early Doors and Drop Dead Gorgeous, and radio programmes including Ed Reardon's Week. She apperared as Jimmy Kemp's mother in the acclaimed nuclear war drama Threads...
- Stan - Geoffrey WhiteheadGeoffrey WhiteheadGeoffrey Whitehead is an English actor. He has appeared in a huge range of television, film and radio roles. In the theatre, he has played at the Shakespeare Globe, St...