Radio Active (radio series)
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| Radio Active | |
 Publicity shot of Radio Active cast (l-r): Michael Fenton Stevens, Philip Pope, Angus Deayton, Geoffrey Perkins and Helen Atkinson-Wood.
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| Genre | Sketch show |
|---|---|
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Home station | BBC Radio 4 |
| TV adaptations | KYTV |
| Starring | Angus Deayton Geoffrey Perkins Michael Fenton Stevens Helen Atkinson-Wood Philip Pope |
| Writers | Richard Curtis Angus Deayton Geoffrey Perkins |
| Producers | Jimmy Mulville |
| Air dates | April 8, 1980 to October 17, 1987 |
| No. of series | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 53 |
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.
Contents |
[edit] Programme format
[edit] Characters
The show was based around 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) and
- 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 Hunt (Deayton),
- brusque owner Sir Norman Tonsil (Deayton),
- Norwegian correspondent Oivind Vinstra (Perkins), whose command of English was negligible and
- Head of Religious Affairs The Right Reverend Reverend Wright (Deayton), who had a mail-order bride.
Other regular characters included:
- unsympathetic agony aunt Anna Rabies (Atkinson-Wood) and
- singing doctor Philip Percygo (Pope).
[edit] Writers
Angus Deayton and Geoffrey Perkins wrote most of the material, with significant additional contributions from, at various times, Jon Canter, 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).
[edit] Recurring elements
The show had its origins in the University of Oxford 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 jingles presenting the station telephone number for phone ins 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"; 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. 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 Deyton 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?.
[edit] Transmission
The show transferred to TV as KYTV, which ran for three series in the 1990s.
The series was 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.
[edit] Episode list
| Series | Episode | Title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pilot | 1 | The Oxford 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? | 6 October 1981 | |
| 6 | Radio Active Awards | 13 October 1981 | |
| Special | 1 | The Hee Bee Gee Bees Story[1] | 19 December 1981 |
| 2 | 1 | The History 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 (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 Debate | 12 July 1985 | |
| 3 | Out of Your Depth | 19 July 1985 | |
| 4 | Big Down Under Show (Australia) | 26 July 1985 | |
| 5 | Get Away with You | 2 August 1985 | |
| 6 | Wey Hey, It's Saturday | 9 August 1985 | |
| 7 | Music Festival | 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 | 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 |
- ^ Broadcast on BBC Radio 2
[edit] External links
