Ed Reardon’s Week
April 24th, 2008 by Steve BowbrickEd Reardon is the man I sometimes fear I’m turning into: an irascible failure, an over-educated, unemployable—but somehow undefeated—grumpy old man. I even find myself making that kind of grunting sound he produces when frustrated. I think Reardon is the current holder of the title ‘Britain’s Best Comic Creation’ and I assume that a translation to TV is imminent, although I think the fact that Christopher Douglas—who co-writes the stuff (with Andrew Nickolds) and plays Reardon himself—is a bit young for the role might be impeding the move. Here’s an episode from the fourth series that originally went out late last year and is being repeated now. Brilliant (MP3).
April 25th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Ed Reardon Britain’s Best Comic Creation? No, no, no. That would be Ping (at least once Sally Hawkins started playing her - I think it was someone else for the first series). Comic genius.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:51 am
It’s a great series. I hope it doesn’t get wrecked on telly.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Ping is awesome and so, of course, is her boss Felix, played by John Fortune at his blousy best.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Yeah, I can’t imagine it’ll benefit from a move to telly. Part of the joy is imagining him and his world through the writing and acting. Beautiful. Possibly my favourite radio show ever.
April 30th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I think Ed Reardon’s Week is utter genius, indeed. For me it’s the best-crafted current character comedy show on UK radio.
I must admit however, that as a standalone comic creation that lives in radio as well as other formats, I find myself extremely fond of Count Arthur Strong.
I only know these characters from what I get in the USA via torrent, bbc.co.uk, and some trans-Atlantic purchases. Since the Count does live theatrical performances, that probably makes me less familiar with his oeuvre overall than Ed Reardon, which is a radio-only character so far (excepting the spin-off book which I haven’t seen). I am so fond of the Count that I bought his Forgotten Egypt! live DVD before the exchange rate went all to hell. It’s priceless.
I’m a bit more positive about a telly Ed after having seen Christopher Douglas play a small role in Jack Dee’s Lead Balloon (I believe it was Series 2, Episode 5, where he played a chemist–known in the US as pharmacist). I recognized him by his Ed-Reardonesque voice and it was extremely easy to imagine him playing a fine TV Ed Reardon based on the small role.
Chances are that, just as with any radio conversion, a telly Ed would stink. But if handled correctly it really could work. I suppose for me the gold standard of radio to TV reworking is People Like Us, but such an alignment of the stars is a rarity.
BBC: More radio Ed Reardon, please. I’m not clamoring for a TV version, though I would certainly watch it.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
I agree with most of the above commentators - more radio series of Ed please, BBC - and please don’t even think about ruining it by moving it to TV.
You did that once too often with HitchHiker.
The pictures are always hugely better on radio and all we listeners all have the whole cast well-set in our minds now. Congratulations to the writers on a brilliant creation.