Musical Comedy was my Dish

Radio 4, 1.30pm

The one thing that everyone knows about P.G. Wodehouse's contribution to musical theatre is that he wrote the words to Bill, from Show Boat. If that were it, Ben Elton would be hard-pressed to fill half an hour's interview and reminiscence (notably from Wodehouse himself, recorded in 1971). But as it transpires Wodehouse was a pillar of musical comedy for 20 years or so, and helped to build the Broadway musical to the point where it couldchallenge the pre-eminence of the West End. So why have his lyrics been overshadowed by Jeeves, Lord Emsworth and the rest? Sadly, because Wodehouse, the greatest comic writer in English, wasn't really all that much cop as a writer of song lyrics. Take this for example: “The dancing Cleopatra was always on the spot/ She gave those Egyptian ginks / Something to watch beside the Sphinx.” Bit of a rum do, what?

Edge Falls

Radio 4, 11pm

Paul Barnhill and Neil Warhurst's comedy set in a retail park returns for a six-week run. The last series was something of a hotchpotch of broad silliness, streaks of worrying blackness (child abduction played for laughs in one episode really didn't work) and rather more frequent shafts of, if not brilliance, then at least something to keep you up until 11pm to listen to it. And while a plot line concerning Pink Thursday, where a 20 per cent discount is on offer for customers willing to come out for the first time at the till, has little going for it in the cold light of day, after a couple of drinks and a curry it could well be hilarious.

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