Review: “Prime Minister, You Wanted To See Me?” - A History of Week Ending by Ian Greaves and Justin Lewis (Kaleidoscope Publishing)

The obvious joke is that this book would be a bestseller even if the only people who bought it were the writers who worked on Week Ending. On just one show, in fact.

To describe this remarkably detailed guide to a topical, satirical programme which was broadcast most weeks on Radio 4 for 28 years as a labour of love is too much of an understatement, especially as its authors, Ian Greaves and Justin Lewis, never actually contributed to the show themselves. They are, however, established and respected historians of broadcast comedy and have produced a work which not only begins with an extended article about the show’s history but also gives an episode guide to every broadcast: 1,132 regular episodes plus specials and compilations. Then there are the tables of the most prolific writers (apparently I am number 31 based on the number of shows I had material used on: 149), wavelength shifts, broadcasting timelines, the spin-off merchandising (remarkably little for such a long-running programme), the stories behind the four signature tunes, details of documentaries about Week Ending and even of the parodies that were done of a show which so often spoofed others.

Week Ending was first broadcast in April 1970 with a budget of £150, a frontman in the form of Michael ‘Nationwide’ Barratt and one writer, Pete Spence. It was taken off a few weeks later, not as a result of the atrocious reviews it attracted but because topical comedy could not be broadcast during a general election (although as the first producer Simon Brett points out in his introductory essay, satire was pretty unfashionable at this time anyway).

When the show returned, the anchorman idea was dropped and a regular cast gradually formed. Most significantly, a weekly spot by a guest journalist entitled ‘Next Week’s News’ was altered to a collection of snappy one-liners. Soon listeners were sending in their own gags for this feature, the writing credits grew longer and so began the ‘open door’ policy for new writers which Week Ending became famous for (although it wasn’t until years later that producer Griff Rhys Jones introduced open meetings for writers).

It’s well known that the show was a starting point for dozens of famous scriptwriters and performers: David Jason, Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, Guy Jenkin, Rory Bremner, Mark Burton and John O’Farrell, Rob Newman and David Baddiel and, during my time there, Stewart Lee and Richard Herring, Andy Parsons and Henry Naylor, Al Murray, Harry Hill, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, etc, etc, but I had no idea until I read this book that in Week Ending’s early days, it benefitted from help supplied by the already-established Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Willie Rushton.

Many of the producers who worked on it have died in recent years: David Hatch, Harry Thompson, Jonathan James-Moore, and, just weeks ago, Geoffrey Perkins, who in 1976 took the show in a more hard-hitting direction. Amazingly, it wasn’t until the following year that the first female cast member, Sheila Steafel, joined (before this, it fell to an understandably reluctant Nigel Rees to supply the Thatcher impressions!)

It’s interesting to note how little some things change at the BBC. Bob Sinfield is quoted bemoaning the lack of typewriters in 16 Langham Street in the early 80s; I found myself taking my own on the train with me up from Bournemouth in the 90s and only last week I noticed a Facebook group called Can We PLEASE have New Computers in the Writers’ Room at Henry Wood House?

The book actually serves as a mini-manual for aspiring writers. Take this timeless advice given in the 80s by the show’s producer Paul Spencer: ‘Start small...Don’t try and write massive sketches, do quickies: Someone does this/Why do they want to do that?/Bang – Punchline’. The title, incidentally, is from what was considered the most clichéd way to open a Week ending ‘head-to-head’ sketch (formats were usually preferred),

In 1990, a new producer, Sarah Smith, deciding that the show was ‘heavy-handed s---‘, changed the style to make it faster, sillier – and funnier. She was the first to use any of my own sketches and her episode to mark the resignation of Margaret Thatcher was stunning. Other producers, such as Armando Iannucci, Jon Magnusson and Gareth Edwards also chose this style while more traditionalist producers reverted to slower versions in between.

This lack of consistency may have contributed to Week Ending’s eventual demise in 1998 but, as the book points out, it was probably more to do with increasingly inexperienced cast members and producers, the growing fashion for writer-performers in comedy shows and the appointment of a new Radio 4 controller, James Boyle, who was determined to scrap it.

One of the great things about this narrative is that it doesn’t flinch from detailing the behind-the-scenes clashes over the years, such as the rows between the cast and early producers who were frustrated performers themselves: Douglas Adams and Jan Ravens. I loved the anecdote about James Boyle sheepishly presenting actress Sally Grace with vintage champagne and her reply that she’d never seen a P45 shaped like that before. And I laughed out loud at producer Liz Anstee’s description of him as ‘the man with a whim of iron’.

In 1990, in one of a flurry of documentaries to mark Week Ending’s 20th anniversary, Griff Rhys Jones joked that the BBC would always have to keep making it whether they broadcast it or not because of the number of new writers it produced. Since its demise, there have certainly been far fewer ‘open door’ shows, particularly since the end of the News Huddlines in 2001. I think broadcast comedy everywhere is poorer as a result.

One show I would have liked to have seen mentioned was What On Earth?, a shameless attempt to get an immediate replacement for Week Ending on Radio 2 a few months later. The seven episodes were under-promoted (and, from the sound of the studio audience, under-attended) but they gave those of us who knew about them some welcome additional credits and income that summer.

Most of the rest of the book (500+ pages) is taken up by the episode guide which is a fascinating historical document; despite the punning/cryptic titles of many sketches, it is possible to see what was being satirised and when, complete with writing and performing credits and even the running times – a radio comedy anorak’s paradise!

Last year, Justin Lewis interviewed me as part of his research and stunned me by telling me that I’d had material used by 20 different producers over the eight years that I was a regular gag (and occasional sketch) writer for the show, Two hours just flew by as I remembered a funny and exciting time in my life. I’m sure many others will feel the same affection when they see this book – listeners as well as the many writers!

“Prime Minister, You Wanted To See Me?” – A History of Week Ending is available now.





(Reprinted from the Radio Magazine Issue 862, 15 October 2008)