Radio Active (radio programme)
Encyclopedia
Radio Active was a radio comedy
programme, broadcast on BBC Radio 4
during the 1980s. The first episode was broadcast in 1980, and it ran for seven series. The show starred, among others, Angus Deayton
, Geoffrey Perkins
, Michael Fenton Stevens
, Helen Atkinson-Wood
and Philip Pope
.
Also on the station's staff were:
Other regular characters included:
, Richard Curtis
, Terence Dackombe, Michael Fenton Stevens, Jack (then John) Docherty
and Moray Hunter
, and the various musical elements provided by Philip Pope. Four producers worked on the series over the years (Jimmy Mulville
, Jamie Rix
, Paul Mayhew-Archer
and David Tyler
.
student drama community, especially in the musical parodies of Philip Pope, which were regularly featured on Radio Active. The best known of these is the Bee Gees
parody The Hee Bee Gee Bees, with their song "Meaningless Songs (In Very High Voices)", which became a moderate hit.
Each programme would start and end with a comical handover to the Radio 4 continuity announcer.
Other parodies included very long and very contemporary jingle
s presenting the station telephone number
for phone in
s (with a false ending) and introducing the commercials
.
The "commercials" had many parodies of current TV adverts and other running jokes - "Hello Mary. (Door noise) Hello June"; "Honest Ron - the others are a con"; an unfortunately named throat lozenge ("Suck Quilly's, suck Quilly's, they make your mouth feel great") and a blindingly obvious patronising public service announcement ("Do not throw boiling water over a child").
Mike Flex presided over the rigged "Master Quiz" with ever changing rules and format, although the prize remained the same: a chateau
in the Loire Valley
, which curiously went un-won from week to week. The Radio Active Drama Repertory
Company usually gave a performance with wild misreadings of the scripts ("She's seriously one hundred and eleven. (Pause). She's seriously ill.") and ("So what? Do we have to go on?" (pause) "So - what do we have to go on?") and miscued sound effects.
The programmes often pitch the "modern-media" regular characters against older stereotypes of foreigners and "establishment types" such as generals and politicians; however, the programme rarely strays into the "alternative comedy
" vogue of contemporary political comment.
In the Nuclear Debate episode, Angus Deayton hosts a panel session (a mass debating session) which was later to be the inspiration for his performance on Have I Got News for You
.
between 1980 and 1988 (as detailed in the table below), with one programme (The Hee Bee Gee Bees Special) from the same team premiering on BBC Radio 2
.
Episodes from the series were repeated on Radio 4 in late 2002, and again on classic comedy radio station BBC 7
in 2003, late 2004, early 2005 and mid-2006 and again in 2007.
A new one-off episode of Radio Active, the first for 15 years, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4
in December 2002.
The third episode of series 7 ("The God Alone Knows Show") caused many complaints on its first transmission and so was edited for the mid-week repeat and all later broadcasts. In particular, in the broadcast church service near the start of the episode the inability of any of the congregation to recite the Lords prayer correctly was replaced with a request for two girls in the front row to turn off their Sony Walkmans. The new translation of the Bible (by "Honest Ron") was also heavily edited, the new 10 commandments were changed to remove two which were originally of a sexual nature (replaced by "thou shalt not listen to the Beastie Boys
" and "thou shalt not support Arsenal"). A description of the cover was deleted completely. To make up the lost time the preceding article was lengthened with a few extra lines.
The show transferred to TV as KYTV, which produced 20 episodes ( a pilot, three series and one Children in Need
special) between 1989 and 1993. The TV show was written and produced by largely the same team as had worked on Radio Active, and Angus Deayton, Helen Atkinson-Wood, Michael Fenton Stevens, Geoffrey Perkins and Phillip Pope again comprised the main cast.
Some of the Radio Active scripts and/or plot devices originally heard on the radio series were reused for the TV show, though the central setting changed from a local radio station to a satellite television
broadcaster, and a number of new features and scenarios which parodied television convention were added. Spoof commercials continued to broadcast, along with parodies of the self-promotions and branding which were a common feature of television stations at this point.
Several key characters from Radio Active transferred to KYTV largely unchanged from their radio incarnations, including Mike Channel, Mike Flex, Anna Daptor and Martin Brown, who formed the central presentation team for KYTV's programmes; other characters including Anna Rabies and the Right Reverend Reverend Wright also transferred across. Phillip Pope's main character in KYTV was as the station's unnamed continuity announcer, although as with the radio series he (and the other regulars) appeared in multiple roles. The station's owner was again played by Deayton, though the character name was changed from Sir Norman Tonsil to Sir Kenneth Yellowhammer for the TV series, to serve as one of the show's thinly-veiled references to Sky TV.
Radio comedy
Radio comedy, or comedic radio programming, is a radio broadcast that may involve sitcom elements, sketches and various types of comedy found on other media. It may also include more surreal or fantastic elements, as these can be conveyed on a small budget with just a few sound effects or some...
programme, broadcast on BBC Radio 4
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...
during the 1980s. The first episode was broadcast in 1980, and it ran for seven series. The show starred, among others, Angus Deayton
Angus Deayton
Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster. He is best known for his role as Victor Meldrew's long-suffering neighbour Patrick Trench in the comedy series One Foot in the Grave...
, Geoffrey Perkins
Geoffrey Perkins
Geoffrey Howard Perkins was a comedy producer, writer and performer, and an important figure in British comedy broadcasting. This was recognised in December 2008 when he was awarded with an Outstanding Contribution to Comedy Award...
, Michael Fenton Stevens
Michael Fenton Stevens
Michael Fenton Stevens , sometimes credited as Michael Fenton-Stevens, is a UK actor and comedian, a founder member of The Hee Bee Gee Bees and the voice behind the Spitting Image 1986 number 1 hit "The Chicken Song"...
, Helen Atkinson-Wood
Helen Atkinson-Wood
Helen Atkinson-Wood is an English actress and comedian born in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, Cheshire.Atkinson-Wood studied fine art at the Ruskin School, Oxford University, where she performed with Rowan Atkinson...
and Philip Pope
Philip Pope
Philip R. J. Pope is a British composer and actor. He was educated at Downside School and New College, Oxford.-Performer:He appeared in the Oxford Revue in Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1978 and 1979, both with Angus Deayton...
.
Characters
The show was based on a fictional radio station (described as "Britain's first national local radio station") and the programmes that it might transmit. Characters on the show were mostly named after pieces of sound equipment, including:- rising star Mike Flex (Perkins),
- aged fading star Mike Channel (Deayton),
- "children's favourite" "Uncle" Mike Stand (Stevens)
- the food-obsessed Anna Daptor (Atkinson-Wood)
Also on the station's staff were:
- the incomprehensible Nigel Pry (Pope),
- the incompetent hospital-radio trained Martin Brown (Stevens),
- the carefully enunciated "oh-so-daring" Mike HuntGag nameA gag name is a false name used to elicit humor through its simultaneous resemblance to a real name on the one hand, and to a term or phrase that is funny, strange, or vulgar on the other hand. The source of the humor is the pun and double entendre; frequently, the humor arises when an unknowing...
(Deayton), - brusque owner Sir Norman TonsilNorman TebbitNorman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit, CH, PC , is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment...
(Deayton), - Norwegian correspondent Oivind Vinstra (Perkins), whose command of EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
was negligible - Head of Religious Affairs The Right Reverend Reverend Wright (Deayton), who had a mail-order brideMail-order brideMail-order bride is a label applied to a woman who publishes her intent to marry someone from another country. This term is considered offensive by some people. The mail-order bride industry is the economic trade of contracted domestic partnerships, often between citizens of different countries or...
Other regular characters included:
- unsympathetic agony aunt Anna RabiesAnna RaeburnAnna Raeburn is a British broadcaster and journalist who is famous for her role as an 'agony aunt' giving advice on life relationship and more general life problems. She is principally known for her work on Capital Radio in London....
(Atkinson-Wood) - singing doctor Philip Percygo (Pope)
Writers
Angus Deayton and Geoffrey Perkins wrote most of the material, with significant additional contributions from, at various times, Jon CanterJon Canter
Jon Canter is an English television comedy writer for Lenny Henry and other leading comedians. Canter was born and brought up in the Jewish community of Golders Green, North London and studied law at the University of Cambridge where he became President of Footlights.After a spell in advertising...
, Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...
, Terence Dackombe, Michael Fenton Stevens, Jack (then John) Docherty
Jack Docherty
Jack Docherty is a Scottish writer, actor, presenter and producer.-Early career:He first performed at the 1980 Edinburgh Festival Fringe with the comedy sketch group The Bodgers which he formed with George Watson's College schoolfriends Moray Hunter, Gordon Kennedy and Pete Baikie. They performed...
and Moray Hunter
Moray Hunter
Moray Hunter is a Scottish comedian, writer and performer. He is perhaps most famous for his roles in the Channel 4 sketch show, Absolutely. Alongside Jack Docherty he played one half of the eccentric double-act, Don and George, in Absolutely and later in the spin-off series, Mr. Don and Mr. George...
, and the various musical elements provided by Philip Pope. Four producers worked on the series over the years (Jimmy Mulville
Jimmy Mulville
James Thomas "Jimmy" Mulville is an English comedian, comedy writer, producer and television presenter. Jimmy Mulville is best known for co-founding in 1986 the British independent television production company Hat Trick Productions with Denise O'Donoghue and Rory McGrath...
, Jamie Rix
Jamie Rix
- Biography :Jamie Rix is the son of actor and MENCAP President Brian Rix and actress Elspet Gray. He is married to Helen and has two grown-up sons, Ben and Jack. He lives in Tooting, London....
, Paul Mayhew-Archer
Paul Mayhew-Archer
Paul Mayhew-Archer is a writer, producer and script editor for the BBC.He studied English at Cambridge University after attending Eastbourne College, being a member of Reeves House. He spent his time at school writing plays...
and David Tyler
David Tyler (UK)
David Tyler is a British television and radio comedy producer, executive producer and director. He is also the co-founder of the independent production company Pozzitive Television, which he set up in 1992 with Geoff Posner....
.
Theme Tune
Out To Lunch by The Client a 1979 RCA single PB5214, originally used for a Nat West Bank Advert.Recurring elements
The show had its origins in the University of OxfordUniversity of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
student drama community, especially in the musical parodies of Philip Pope, which were regularly featured on Radio Active. The best known of these is the Bee Gees
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
parody The Hee Bee Gee Bees, with their song "Meaningless Songs (In Very High Voices)", which became a moderate hit.
Each programme would start and end with a comical handover to the Radio 4 continuity announcer.
Other parodies included very long and very contemporary jingle
Jingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
s presenting the station telephone number
Telephone number
A telephone number or phone number is a sequence of digits used to call from one telephone line to another in a public switched telephone network. When telephone numbers were invented, they were short — as few as one, two or three digits — and were given orally to a switchboard operator...
for phone in
Phone in
In broadcasting, a phone-in or call-in is a programme format in which viewers or listeners are invited to air their live comments by telephone, usually in respect of a specific topic selected for discussion on the day of the broadcast. On radio , it is common for an entire programme to be dedicated...
s (with a false ending) and introducing the commercials
Radio commercial
Commercial radio stations make most of their revenue selling “airtime” to advertisers. Of total media expenditures, radio accounts for 6.9%. Radio advertisements or “spots” are available when a business or service provides valuable consideration, usually cash, in exchange for the station airing...
.
The "commercials" had many parodies of current TV adverts and other running jokes - "Hello Mary. (Door noise) Hello June"; "Honest Ron - the others are a con"; an unfortunately named throat lozenge ("Suck Quilly's, suck Quilly's, they make your mouth feel great") and a blindingly obvious patronising public service announcement ("Do not throw boiling water over a child").
Mike Flex presided over the rigged "Master Quiz" with ever changing rules and format, although the prize remained the same: a chateau
Château
A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
in the Loire Valley
Loire Valley
The Loire Valley , spanning , is located in the middle stretch of the Loire River in central France. Its area comprises approximately . It is referred to as the Cradle of the French Language, and the Garden of France due to the abundance of vineyards, fruit orchards, and artichoke, asparagus, and...
, which curiously went un-won from week to week. The Radio Active Drama Repertory
Repertory
Repertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...
Company usually gave a performance with wild misreadings of the scripts ("She's seriously one hundred and eleven. (Pause). She's seriously ill.") and ("So what? Do we have to go on?" (pause) "So - what do we have to go on?") and miscued sound effects.
The programmes often pitch the "modern-media" regular characters against older stereotypes of foreigners and "establishment types" such as generals and politicians; however, the programme rarely strays into the "alternative comedy
Alternative comedy
Alternative comedy is a term that originated in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era, and typically avoids relying on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt defines it as "comedy where the...
" vogue of contemporary political comment.
In the Nuclear Debate episode, Angus Deayton hosts a panel session (a mass debating session) which was later to be the inspiration for his performance on Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
.
Transmission
The original broadcasts took place on BBC Radio 4BBC 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...
between 1980 and 1988 (as detailed in the table below), with one programme (The Hee Bee Gee Bees Special) from the same team premiering on BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
.
Episodes from the series were repeated on Radio 4 in late 2002, and again on classic comedy radio station 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...
in 2003, late 2004, early 2005 and mid-2006 and again in 2007.
A new one-off episode of Radio Active, the first for 15 years, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4
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...
in December 2002.
The third episode of series 7 ("The God Alone Knows Show") caused many complaints on its first transmission and so was edited for the mid-week repeat and all later broadcasts. In particular, in the broadcast church service near the start of the episode the inability of any of the congregation to recite the Lords prayer correctly was replaced with a request for two girls in the front row to turn off their Sony Walkmans. The new translation of the Bible (by "Honest Ron") was also heavily edited, the new 10 commandments were changed to remove two which were originally of a sexual nature (replaced by "thou shalt not listen to the Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
" and "thou shalt not support Arsenal"). A description of the cover was deleted completely. To make up the lost time the preceding article was lengthened with a few extra lines.
Television adaptation
For more information, see KYTV (TV series).The show transferred to TV as KYTV, which produced 20 episodes ( a pilot, three series and one Children in Need
Children in Need
Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...
special) between 1989 and 1993. The TV show was written and produced by largely the same team as had worked on Radio Active, and Angus Deayton, Helen Atkinson-Wood, Michael Fenton Stevens, Geoffrey Perkins and Phillip Pope again comprised the main cast.
Some of the Radio Active scripts and/or plot devices originally heard on the radio series were reused for the TV show, though the central setting changed from a local radio station to a satellite television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
broadcaster, and a number of new features and scenarios which parodied television convention were added. Spoof commercials continued to broadcast, along with parodies of the self-promotions and branding which were a common feature of television stations at this point.
Several key characters from Radio Active transferred to KYTV largely unchanged from their radio incarnations, including Mike Channel, Mike Flex, Anna Daptor and Martin Brown, who formed the central presentation team for KYTV's programmes; other characters including Anna Rabies and the Right Reverend Reverend Wright also transferred across. Phillip Pope's main character in KYTV was as the station's unnamed continuity announcer, although as with the radio series he (and the other regulars) appeared in multiple roles. The station's owner was again played by Deayton, though the character name was changed from Sir Norman Tonsil to Sir Kenneth Yellowhammer for the TV series, to serve as one of the show's thinly-veiled references to Sky TV.
Episode list
| Series | Episode | Title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pilot | 1 | The Oxford Oxford The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through... Review |
8 April 1980 |
| 1 | 1 | The Late Show (aka Late Night Radio) | 8 September 1981 |
| 2 | Bedrock (Mike Flex Breakfast Show) | 15 September 1981 | |
| 3 | Midday Show (with Anna Dapter) | 22 September 1981 | |
| 4 | Radio Active Roadshow | 29 September 1981 | |
| 5 | What's News News News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :... ? |
6 October 1981 | |
| 6 | Radio Active Awards | 13 October 1981 | |
| Special | 1 | The Hee Bee Gee Bees Story | 19 December 1981 |
| 2 | 1 | The History History History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians... of Radio Active |
16 August 1982 |
| 2 | Radiothon | 23 August 1982 | |
| 3 | Good Day Sport | 30 August 1982 | |
| 4 | What's Going On? | 6 September 1982 | |
| 5 | The Nigel Pry Story | 13 September 1982 | |
| 6 | Pick of the Week | 20 September 1982 | |
| 3 | 1 | Euroshow | 12 July 1983 |
| 2 | Probe Round the Back (Behind the scenes) | 19 July 1983 | |
| 3 | Radio Active's Funday in Blackport | 26 July 1983 | |
| 4 | Repeat After Three (Late Show) | 2 August 1983 | |
| 5 | Lunchtime with Anna (Buy British Exhibition) | 9 August 1983 | |
| 6 | Edinburgh Festival Edinburgh Festival The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August... (What's Going On?) |
16 August 1983 | |
| Special | 2 | Radio Active's Christmas Turkey | 20 December 1983 |
| 4 | 1 | Salute to New York | 9 July 1984 |
| 2 | The Martin Brown Show | 16 July 1984 | |
| 3 | Round Your Parts (in Humpingham) | 23 July 1984 | |
| 4 | Radiovision Breakfast Show | 30 July 1984 | |
| 5 | Minorities Programme | 6 August 1984 | |
| 6 | The Bio Show (Sir John Leslie) | 13 August 1984 | |
| 7 | Gigantaquiz | 20 August 1984 | |
| 8 | Martin Chizzlenutt | 27 August 1984 | |
| 5 | 1 | Wimbledon Special | 5 July 1985 |
| 2 | Nuclear Nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity... Debate |
12 July 1985 | |
| 3 | Out of Your Depth | 19 July 1985 | |
| 4 | Big Down Under Down Under The term Down Under is a colloquialism which is variously construed either to refer to Australia and New Zealand, or Australia alone. The term comes from the fact that these countries are located in the southern hemisphere, below many other countries on the globe.The persistence of the media use of... Show (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... ) |
26 July 1985 | |
| 5 | Get Away with You | 2 August 1985 | |
| 6 | Wey Hey, It's Saturday | 9 August 1985 | |
| 7 | Music Festival Music festival A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,... |
16 August 1985 | |
| 8 | Did You Catch It? | 23 August 1985 | |
| 6 | 1 | Thodding By-Election | 11 October 1986 |
| 2 | The Fit and Fat Show | 18 October 1986 | |
| 3 | Bogey Awards | 25 October 1986 | |
| 4 | The D Day Show | 1 November 1986 | |
| 5 | The Nice Film Festival (aka Radio Active Goes to the Movies) | 8 November 1986 | |
| 6 | Stop That Crime UK | 15 November 1986 | |
| 7 | In-House Documentary Documentary film Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record... |
22 November 1986 | |
| 8 | Backchat | 29 November 1986 | |
| 7 | 1 | It Was Twenty Years Ago (Last Tuesday) | 29 August 1987 |
| 2 | Radio Radio Programme | 5 September 1987 | |
| 3 | God Alone Knows | 12 September 1987 | |
| 4 | Probe Round the Back (Spycatcher) | 19 September 1987 | |
| 5 | Here's a Bit of Talent | 26 September 1987 | |
| 6 | The Flu Special | 3 October 1987 | |
| 7 | You and Your Things | 10 October 1987 | |
| 8 | Mega Phone-In | 17 October 1987 | |
| Special | 3 | (confirmation required of the existence of this episode) | 2 January 1988 |
| Special | 4 | Digital Turn-On | 17 December 2002 |