Sian’s radio recommendation of the week: Don’t Make Me Laugh

New comedy on radio 4 this week from David Baddiel as he asks a team of hysterically funny comedians to do their very best to not make their audience laugh. With Jack Dee, Miles Jupp, Aisling Bea and Ben Miller doing their best to get nothing but awkward silences from their audience, (and often failing to do so quite wonderfully) watch out in particular for the heckles from the audience, proving that those on stage are not the only ones capable of getting a laugh.

You have four weeks left to listen to episode one here.

Sian’s radio recommendation of the week: The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy

Rejoice, dance and make sure you know where your towel is because Radio 4Extra are repeating the extraordinary radio show of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. It’s the original broadcast from 1978 and features Geoffrey McGivern, Peter Jones, Simon Jones and Jo Kendall.

It is the original and it is fabulous. Only listen here if you are a hoopy frood.

Sian’s radio reccommendation of the week: Meet David Sedaris

“You should really listen to this guy called David Sedaris”, my dad said to me once. “He’s a gay Jewish New Yorker who reads out his stories on Radio 4. His way with words is magnificent.”

Meet David Sedaris is a radio show that could have existed for hundreds of years, so timeless is the format. David Sedaris reads out some of his short stories; they may already be in his books or have been published in magazines but when he reads them out to an audience, it really feels off the cuff – like proper storytelling.

His delivery is funny, his stories are very funny, but what’s more every story he tells, as well as the laughs, has a little glimmer of human truth in it, something that will make you say “..oh.”

You’ve got 6 days left to listen to episode 6 of Episode 2 and if you like it then I implore you to seek out his books. Catch it here.