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Desolation Jests: A BBC Radio Sketch Comedy
The complete series of the BBC radio sketch show that takes a post-truth look at the history of laughter.
A dark, quirky parody of Desert Island Discs, Desolation Jests is a post-apocalyptic sketch show that takes a not-altogether-accurate look at the history of comedy. Featuring faux interviews with spurious celebrities, conducted by the Roy Plomley-esque host JP Doom, it poses the question ‘Which comedy sketches would you most want at your side to face the end of the world?’
Choosing their favourite moments of mirth are Frankie ‘Flesh Eater’ Harris, who talks about life at the top of the ‘Most Wanted’ list; Viktor Schmelling, Emeritus Professor of Princeton University’s Faculty of Laughter; Lucian Bile (aka Rot Caries), Britain’s first and only punk dentist and Sydney Pynchlink, the innovative director behind some of the country's most admired weather forecasts.
Among the counter-factual comedy clips singled out for posterity are the fast-talking lunacy of the Klutz Brothers’ classic A Day at the Proctologists, the atheist episode of Sunday Worship; most of an announcement from the Ministry of Unfinished Business, and a lobster with a rather crucial piece of evidence.
Created by award-winning TV writer David Renwick (One Foot in the Grave, Jonathan Creek), Desolation Jests’ stellar line-up includes John Bird and Rory Bremner (Bremner, Bird and Fortune), as well as Dead Ringers star Jan Ravens and comedy legend David Jason.
Written by David Renwick
David Jason, John Bird, Jan Ravens, Rory Bremner
With Christopher Timothy, Adie Allen, James Lailey and Nick Underwood
Produced by Gareth Edwards
Production Sophie Richardson
A BBC Studios Production
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 13 December 2016 - 3 January 2017
A dark, quirky parody of Desert Island Discs, Desolation Jests is a post-apocalyptic sketch show that takes a not-altogether-accurate look at the history of comedy. Featuring faux interviews with spurious celebrities, conducted by the Roy Plomley-esque host JP Doom, it poses the question ‘Which comedy sketches would you most want at your side to face the end of the world?’
Choosing their favourite moments of mirth are Frankie ‘Flesh Eater’ Harris, who talks about life at the top of the ‘Most Wanted’ list; Viktor Schmelling, Emeritus Professor of Princeton University’s Faculty of Laughter; Lucian Bile (aka Rot Caries), Britain’s first and only punk dentist and Sydney Pynchlink, the innovative director behind some of the country's most admired weather forecasts.
Among the counter-factual comedy clips singled out for posterity are the fast-talking lunacy of the Klutz Brothers’ classic A Day at the Proctologists, the atheist episode of Sunday Worship; most of an announcement from the Ministry of Unfinished Business, and a lobster with a rather crucial piece of evidence.
Created by award-winning TV writer David Renwick (One Foot in the Grave, Jonathan Creek), Desolation Jests’ stellar line-up includes John Bird and Rory Bremner (Bremner, Bird and Fortune), as well as Dead Ringers star Jan Ravens and comedy legend David Jason.
Written by David Renwick
David Jason, John Bird, Jan Ravens, Rory Bremner
With Christopher Timothy, Adie Allen, James Lailey and Nick Underwood
Produced by Gareth Edwards
Production Sophie Richardson
A BBC Studios Production
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 13 December 2016 - 3 January 2017
Audible Audio
Published May 21, 2020
About the author
David Renwick
16 books5 followersDavid Peter Renwick is an English television writer, best known for creation of the sitcom One Foot in the Grave and the mystery series Jonathan Creek.
On beginning his comedy career, he initially worked in a team with writing partner Andrew Marshall, the pair of them providing material to popular sketch shows such as The Two Ronnies and Not the Nine O'Clock News during the late 1970s and early 80s. One of the most celebrated sketches he wrote for the former was a parody of the BBC quiz programme Mastermind, where a "Charlie Smithers" chose to answer questions on the specialist subject "Answering the question before last", adapted from his "Answering one question behind all the time" sketch from their The Burkiss Way for BBC Radio 4. Their short-lived LWT series for ITV, End of Part One, was an attempt to transfer Burkiss-style humour to television. Later in the 1980s they also wrote for the sketch show Alexei Sayle's Stuff and Spike Milligan's There's a Lot of It About.
In 1982 they penned the comedy drama serial Whoops Apocalypse for LWT, based on the insanity of international politics in the age of nuclear weapons, and four years later they adapted the screenplay (changing most of the characters and situations completely) into a feature film version. In 1983 they wrote The Steam Video Company for Thames Television, a short comedy series based on very silly parodies of famous novels. This was followed in 1986 by Hot Metal for LWT, a six-part satire of the tabloid newspaper industry starring Robert Hardy, Geoffrey Palmer and John Gordon Sinclair. The show was a critical success and returned for a further six episodes in 1988 with a revised cast of Robert Hardy, Richard Wilson and Caroline Milmoe.
Renwick began writing solo in 1990 when he created the sitcom One Foot in the Grave, starring Richard Wilson, which was highly successful and went on to be a popular hit for the following decade. It also ran for four seasons as an American re-make entitled Cosby, starring Bill Cosby, although this is generally regarded as a poor adaptation of the original.
In 1997, Renwick devised the comedy-drama Jonathan Creek, based around the crime-solving abilities of the eponymous designer of magic tricks, played by comedian Alan Davies. As of 2009, twenty-seven episodes have been produced across four short-run series and four specials. The slow rate of production is partly due to Renwick's writing of the episodes, which he describes as being a painstaking process in which the intricacies of the plots take several months to work out.
He has also written for 'straight' television drama, contributing episodes to ITV's famous adaptations of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot mysteries, starring David Suchet. Renwick's fondness for rationalist murder mysteries with supernatural overtones, later developed fully in Jonathan Creek is evident in elements he added to the Poirot adaptations. In 1992, Renwick and co-writer Michael Baker received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the Poirot episode "The Lost Mine", which aired in the U.S. as part of the PBS anthology series Mystery!.
Most recently, another comedy-drama Renwick has penned, entitled Love Soup, starring Tamsin Greig and Michael Landes, premiered on BBC One on 27 September 2005. Renwick, and his ex writing partner Marshall, had cameo roles in an episode of the series as members of a television sitcom scriptwriting team.
He was awarded the Writers Guild Ronnie Barker Award at the British Comedy Awards 2008.
On beginning his comedy career, he initially worked in a team with writing partner Andrew Marshall, the pair of them providing material to popular sketch shows such as The Two Ronnies and Not the Nine O'Clock News during the late 1970s and early 80s. One of the most celebrated sketches he wrote for the former was a parody of the BBC quiz programme Mastermind, where a "Charlie Smithers" chose to answer questions on the specialist subject "Answering the question before last", adapted from his "Answering one question behind all the time" sketch from their The Burkiss Way for BBC Radio 4. Their short-lived LWT series for ITV, End of Part One, was an attempt to transfer Burkiss-style humour to television. Later in the 1980s they also wrote for the sketch show Alexei Sayle's Stuff and Spike Milligan's There's a Lot of It About.
In 1982 they penned the comedy drama serial Whoops Apocalypse for LWT, based on the insanity of international politics in the age of nuclear weapons, and four years later they adapted the screenplay (changing most of the characters and situations completely) into a feature film version. In 1983 they wrote The Steam Video Company for Thames Television, a short comedy series based on very silly parodies of famous novels. This was followed in 1986 by Hot Metal for LWT, a six-part satire of the tabloid newspaper industry starring Robert Hardy, Geoffrey Palmer and John Gordon Sinclair. The show was a critical success and returned for a further six episodes in 1988 with a revised cast of Robert Hardy, Richard Wilson and Caroline Milmoe.
Renwick began writing solo in 1990 when he created the sitcom One Foot in the Grave, starring Richard Wilson, which was highly successful and went on to be a popular hit for the following decade. It also ran for four seasons as an American re-make entitled Cosby, starring Bill Cosby, although this is generally regarded as a poor adaptation of the original.
In 1997, Renwick devised the comedy-drama Jonathan Creek, based around the crime-solving abilities of the eponymous designer of magic tricks, played by comedian Alan Davies. As of 2009, twenty-seven episodes have been produced across four short-run series and four specials. The slow rate of production is partly due to Renwick's writing of the episodes, which he describes as being a painstaking process in which the intricacies of the plots take several months to work out.
He has also written for 'straight' television drama, contributing episodes to ITV's famous adaptations of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot mysteries, starring David Suchet. Renwick's fondness for rationalist murder mysteries with supernatural overtones, later developed fully in Jonathan Creek is evident in elements he added to the Poirot adaptations. In 1992, Renwick and co-writer Michael Baker received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the Poirot episode "The Lost Mine", which aired in the U.S. as part of the PBS anthology series Mystery!.
Most recently, another comedy-drama Renwick has penned, entitled Love Soup, starring Tamsin Greig and Michael Landes, premiered on BBC One on 27 September 2005. Renwick, and his ex writing partner Marshall, had cameo roles in an episode of the series as members of a television sitcom scriptwriting team.
He was awarded the Writers Guild Ronnie Barker Award at the British Comedy Awards 2008.
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