The Cambridge Geek

Live at Eleven

Toby Foster here hosts a half hour topical show about various things that have popped up in the news in the last week or so, with one massive exception. Since it was recorded around the recent European Parliament elections, that was a major topic right out, so instead it's all the fun of Theresa May getting fired.

Joining him is Rahul Kohli, Jennifer Williams, Gareth Gwynn and Lou Conran, as well as various contributions they've amassed on Twitter from the listening public. (Interestingly/unfortunately I follow some of the people who were involved in making this, so did happen to see a lot of the listener stories prior to making it. I actually thought there were a few better options than the ones they picked.)

It's got a couple of scripted/pre-built sections, such as the use of archive material to take the mickey out of how repetitive the election coverage usually is, and a quiz based around how much the great British public want things re-nationalised. Initiated, as you may or may not guess by the recent problems suffered by British Steel (possibly primarily because they were the leftover bits Tata reckoned they couldn't make a profit off).

This naturally wanders around trains, particularly in the North, as they're inevitably treated worse than Southern, and oddly pops into a call-in from an actual clown, to query if he would be any better than Chris Grayling. (Spoiler warning: literally anyone would be better than Chris Grayling.)

Other than those bits, it's mostly a relatively free-form chat between the host and guests, with little monologuing. Think of the News Quiz, but instead of each panellist getting a few minutes to whip up some relevant standup-esque speech in answer to each question, it's a free-for-all. Which makes me wonder what this is trying to be. This sits in a half hour comedy slot, but could just as well delivered in small segments around a playlist of songs on Radio 1. I just don't quite understand why they've decided to try and fit a standard unfocused Talk Radio format into a half-hour focused slot. Can't say I'd likely go back to this one.

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Tagged: Radio Comedy Cast Informative News/Political