The Now Show, 13 August 2009

My initial thought was not to bother to try and get tickets for the latest series of The Now Show but I weakened and applied for, and got, tickets to the last show of the current series of eight shows.

The logistics were a little easier than usual as the rest of the family were all on holiday so there was no waiting for the last boy to get home from school followed by the rush to get to Broadcasting House.

If you've read the previous postings on The Now Show then you know that the plot is Pizza Express, get in the queue early enough to get into the first waiting room then jockey for position to ensure a front row seat. It all worked again.

Hugh Dennis was even more up for it than usual and we had an extended set of warm-up renditions including the crap gymnastic dismount, old man running, rings, ski jump and (pictured) the legendary raptor, which is also on YouTube.

Andy Zaltzman was the guest comedian and as a semi-regular guest he fitted into the programme well.

That apart it was The Now Show doing what The Now Show does, that is being funny about topical subjects in a very middle-class way with plenty of references to not-so-recent films and TV shows. This is exactly what you expect from, and hope for, in a Radio 4 comedy.

I would like to claim that one of my jokes made the broadcast version but as most of the audience submitted "I do" as the thing they regretted saying it is hard to be certain that it was my copy that got read out, but I think that it was. In the theatre they read another one of mine out too but in the editing they seemed to think that the cast's jokes were better than mine. Odd that.