Desolation Jests: A BBC Radio Sketch Comedy

David Renwick

May 2020 · BBC Digital Audio · Narrated by David Jason, Full Cast, Jan Ravens, John Bird, and Rory Bremner

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1 hr 50 min

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About this audiobook

The complete series of the BBC radio sketch show that takes a post-truth look at the history of laughter.

A dark, quirky parody of Desert Island Discs, Desolation Jests is a post-apocalyptic sketch show that takes a not-altogether-accurate look at the history of comedy. Featuring faux interviews with spurious celebrities, conducted by the Roy Plomley-esque host JP Doom, it poses the question ‘Which comedy sketches would you most want at your side to face the end of the world?’

Choosing their favourite moments of mirth are Frankie ‘Flesh Eater’ Harris, who talks about life at the top of the ‘Most Wanted’ list; Viktor Schmelling, Emeritus Professor of Princeton University’s Faculty of Laughter; Lucian Bile (aka Rot Caries), Britain’s first and only punk dentist and Sydney Pynchlink, the innovative director behind some of the country's most admired weather forecasts.

Among the counter-factual comedy clips singled out for posterity are the fast-talking lunacy of the Klutz Brothers’ classic A Day at the Proctologists, the atheist episode of Sunday Worship; most of an announcement from the Ministry of Unfinished Business, and a lobster with a rather crucial piece of evidence.

Created by award-winning TV writer David Renwick (One Foot in the Grave, Jonathan Creek), Desolation Jests’ stellar line-up includes John Bird and Rory Bremner (Bremner, Bird and Fortune), as well as Dead Ringers star Jan Ravens and comedy legend David Jason.

Written by David Renwick
Starring: David Jason, John Bird, Jan Ravens, Rory Bremner
With Christopher Timothy, Adie Allen, James Lailey and Nick Underwood
Produced by Gareth Edwards
Production Coordinator: Sophie Richardson
A BBC Studios Production
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 13 December 2016-3 January 2017

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About the author

David Renwick is a television and radio writer, best known for One Foot in the Grave and Jonathan Creek. For radio, he co-wrote The Burkiss Way and contributed to The Two Ronnies and Not the Nine O'Clock News. He was awarded the Writers Guild Ronnie Barker Award at the 2008 British Comedy Awards. Sir David Jason was born in 1940 in North London. His acting career has been long and varied: from his theatre work in the West End to providing the voices of Mr Toad from The Wind in the Willows, Dangermouse and The BFG. From Open All Hours to The Darling Buds of May to his starring roles as Detective Inspector Frost in A Touch of Frost and, of course, Derek ‘Del Boy’ Trotter in Only Fools and Horses. John Bird was born just after the Second World War to a London Irish family in slum-ridden Notting Hill. Homeless at five, he went on to spend three years in an orphanage before, at the age of ten, embarking on a spree of shoplifting, house breaking, vandalism and arson. Periods in jail were followed in his twenties by the birth of three of his children and his metamorphosis into a successful businessman. At the age of 45, using his own life and professional experience, he founded the Big Issue and over the last fifteen years has overseen its development into an international movement which stretches from Tokyo to Totnes.

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