This is up to the fourth series, so you might have some idea what it's about. Just in case you don't, this is a sketch-based comedy series, with five streams of plotline broken up into "small scenes", often of a single line or two of dialogue.
There's obviously a fair degree of silliness involved, which here includes Crufts for cats, an arts and culture festival for the unbearably smug, and a school reunion. There's also the fact that humanity is now entirely out of ideas, necessitating help from James Dyson, and the difficulties of cancelling your National Trust membership.
I've previously enjoyed this, but part of me suspects it's beginning to get a bit comfortable. The National Trust idea in particular feels like a retread of the Australian conspiracy from back in Series 2, with the reveal of a large conspiracy and a celebrity drop-in. Either that, or the pasta one.
The other ideas tend to progress as you might expect from the premise. Crufts for cats is mostly one guy with a cat on his face. The unbearably smug people run a joke about tote bags a bit too hard into the ground, and the school reunion uses the usual tropes about bullies, people having achieved lots or little and what people look like now.
I'd almost think they were doing a meta joke with the final stream, about the fact everything is a sequel or a reboot nowadays, except this didn't feel cleverly enough written for me to assume that. It was also tainted by the fictional Dyson, who by now has made enough of an arse of himself over his Brexit hypocrisy that using him is a risk.
It's just underwhelming really. I'll probably try a bit more of it, because it is at least well voiced, but I'm not holding out high hopes.
Tagged: Radio Comedy Cast Sketch Anthology