Tribute radio show in the works

The BBC is to air a tribute to ‘feisty female comedians’.

June Whitfield,  Hattie Jacques, Sally Phillips, Maureen Lipman, Meera Syal, Rebecca Front, Jenny Éclair, Nina Conti, Jo Brand, Linda Smith and Sandi Toksvig are among those to be celebrated in the archive programme Nasty Women.

With its title inspired by the insult Donald Trump levelled at Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, the radio show will be fronted by impressionist Jan Ravens.

She will be joined by guest stand-ups Kiri Pritchard-McLean, and Lauren Pattison, plus BBC’s Commissioning Editor for Comedy, Sioned William.

The four of them will talk about the story of female satire on the radio in between clips from classic programmes. When broadcast these specials will feature whole editions of selected programmes.

The show – for Radio 4 Extra – will be recorded in front of a studio audience at BBC Radio Theatre in Central London on December 11 (Click here for tickets).

Since Trump used the phrase in a presidential TV debate, the 'nasty woman' epithet has been embraced as a political battle-cry with Nasty Woman t-shirts, perfumes and cocktails. Ravens's own Edinburgh show and tour was called Difficult Woman.

Published: 28 Nov 2017