Radio review: An Audience with Ed Reardon

An Audience with Ed Reardon (Radio 4) had some very funny moments. Recorded in Edinburgh, this was Reardon, played by Christopher Douglas reading some of his favourite literature to a live audience. Naturally, he chose all his own work. The tone was the same as the regular sitcom, with Reardon the bitter curmudgeon ranting at writers more successful than him. He referred to "the open sewer that is the current condition of screenwriting," and then added, "we'll get on to Richard Curtis and Nick Hornby in due course". He tried to sell the idea of his abusive letters of complaint – the latest to Sainsbury's about a re-sealable sticker on his rice not working – being made into a non-fiction title by saying that "every time Ian McEwan breaks wind in a restaurant it becomes a book". And there were some brilliant lines as Reardon talked through career highs such as his episode of Tenko, the stage plays (Stanley Valentine and Blood Sisters), and The Ladybird Book of Shoes. When his Afternoon Play went out, he recalled, one radio critic described it as "the most harrowing afternoon's ironing I have ever known". Yet, while this one-off format was enjoyable, it lacked the hilarious intensity of the usual show. Put simply, this didn't quite make me laugh out loud, and that always does.