It feels like the BBC have been putting out an increasing number of these short form programmes, which are both on the radio and sneaked out as podcasts. This is the next one, a shorter form of Newsjack, the long-running show primarily written by submissions from the general public.
Now, Newsjack is wildly popular, and I'm surprised it hasn't been expanded to an increased number of series already, but I think that's partly due to the fact it's competing with all the other news-related shows. There's the Now Show, the News Quiz, Dead Ringers, so it's possible they don't need any more. It's also a tricky one to source material for, as it seems throughout the main series, submissions do drop off with time. Perhaps if it ran constantly, it would eventually get nothing.
Which makes me wonder whether submissions are taken for this one. I suspect not, as they've not mentioned it. So this is probably written mostly internally. It mainly follows the format of Newsjack, with a monologue by the guest host (currently Kiri Pritchard McLean), a collection of Breaking News articles and a bit of Good Week, Bad Week.
There's also a guest, in order to allow them to run out a couple of new sketches, as well as playing something from the archive. Obviously topical, and though it's not as funny as the main series, suffering as it does from not having a massive abundance of source material, it's still a solid offering. One to put on if you're missing Newsjack.
Tagged: Radio Comedy Cast Sketch News/Political