The Skewer returned for its 15th season
Back on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds - and fresh from winning it's 4th Gold Radio Academy Award - the satirical soundscape returned for a brand new series in January. You'll find our latest episodes and previous series here
COMING UP FOR UNUSUAL...
How Not to be Cringe with Finlay Christie and Kyrah Gray
How Not to be Cringe with Finlay Christie and Kyrah Gray
How Not to be Cringe with Finlay Christie and Kyrah Gray
BBC Radio 4
23.15 Wednesday 18th February
Finlay Christie and Kyrah Gray present a guide to navigating the modern world without embarrassing yourself. In this first episode they will expertly show us, with the help of special guest Andre Mensah, How Not to Get Cancelled.
Producer: Laura Grimshaw
Series 4 of The Naked Week
How Not to be Cringe with Finlay Christie and Kyrah Gray
How Not to be Cringe with Finlay Christie and Kyrah Gray
BBC Radio 4
18.30 Friday 6th March
The Naked Week is back for a fourth season in March so get ready for another riotous romp through the week's headlines!
Producer: Jon Holmes
Now What?
How Not to be Cringe with Finlay Christie and Kyrah Gray
Now What?
BBC Radio 4
18.30 Tuesday 31st March
Zoe Lyons pieces her life back together after things went belly-up in her fifties, and she looks at what true success looks like with career advice from celebrity guests including Helen Lederer, Jenny Eclair, Amelia Hamilton and Kerry Godliman.
Producer: Laura Grimshaw
Some stuff we've made...
A Match Made in Inshallah with Fatiha El-Ghorri
A Match Made in Inshallah with Fatiha El-Ghorri
A Match Made in Inshallah with Fatiha El-Ghorri
Broadcast on Valentines Day 2026, A Match Made in Inshallah is a fearless, funny show where the 44-year-old, twice divorced stand-up comedian Fatiha El Ghorri is looking for love and ready to go on a date - and she wants us all to be her wingman.
Mixing stand-up, commentary and the actual date itself, we will hear Fatiha's deepest thoughts, hopes, dreams and judgements as we join her every step of the way through the dating minefield.
Producer: Laura Grimshaw
The Skewer
A Match Made in Inshallah with Fatiha El-Ghorri
A Match Made in Inshallah with Fatiha El-Ghorri
The Skewer is a bold, fresh take on topical satire, blending humour and poignancy by remixing real words from politicians, celebrities, and world leaders into a weekly current affair ‘concept album’.
Proudly diverse, the show has given over 150 writers their first credit, featuring voices from all walks of life - NHS workers, drivers, vicars, and pole-dancers. Open to anyone, The Skewer brings these unique perspectives together.
Producer: Jon Holmes
The Naked Week
A Match Made in Inshallah with Fatiha El-Ghorri
Mary Bourke: Who Cares
Outrageously funny and, well, just outrageous, The Naked Week is BBC Radio 4's answer to impartiality. With Andrew Hunter Murray at the helm, no one is safe from this satirically witty roasting of the week’s headlines. It’s sharp, fearless (much to the dismay of our lawyers) and will leave you laughing out loud while wondering how on earth we got here.
Producer: Jon Holmes
Mary Bourke: Who Cares
Darren Harriot: Father Figuring
Mary Bourke: Who Cares
Irish comic Mary Bourke presents a brutally funny, inspirational look at the hidden world of being a carer.
Producer: Katie Sayer.
Darren Harriot: Father Figuring
Darren Harriot: Father Figuring
Darren Harriot: Father Figuring
Through stand-up and interviews with his family, friends, social scientists and psychologists, comedian Darren Harriott interrogates what it means to be a dad.
Producer: Laura Grimshaw
Fantasy Park
Darren Harriot: Father Figuring
Darren Harriot: Father Figuring
In 1975, almost a million people descended on Fantasy Park - the largest rock concert in the world. It brought the biggest names in rock—Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, and more. Spanning 48 hours and broadcast coast to coast, the legendary festival even sparked rumors of a Beatles reunion. Now, 50 years later, Bob Harris revisits the ultimate musical trip with rare archives, bootlegs, and backstage interviews.
Producer: Jon Holmes
Off Script
What? Seriously??
Off Script
Off Script With Lucie Jones is a brand new chatty podcast recording, Lucie sits down with the great and good from the world of Musical Theatre to chat about their lives on and off stage.
Producer: Sarah Grun.
The Island
What? Seriously??
Off Script
Fresh from his real-life appearance on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Stephen Mangan washes up on the island. When he discovers he's not alone, living among the palms and rocky outcrops and thousands of coffee machines lying in the sand is every former guest of the show - and it's all gone a bit Lord Of The Flies. Stephen soon finds himself in the kind of trouble where the Bible, the Complete Works of Shakespeare, and his luxury item will be no help whatsoever. sto the complete boxset on BBC Sounds.
Fresh from his real-life appearance on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Stephen Mangan washes up on the island. When he discovers he's not alone, living among the palms and rocky outcrops and thousands of coffee machines lying in the sand is every former guest of the show - and it's all gone a bit Lord Of The Flies. Stephen soon finds himself in the kind of trouble where the Bible, the Complete Works of Shakespeare, and his luxury item will be no help whatsoever. Listen to the complete boxset on BBC Sounds.
Producer: Bill Dare.
What? Seriously??
What? Seriously??
The Skewer: The 2024 Election Special
A new podcast which combines comedy with quirky history, hosted by Dara Ó Briain and Isy Suttie, who are tasked to unravel an extraordinary real-life tale each week with the help of a celebrity guest.
The show that unearths true stories so bizarre it makes you go, "What? Seriously??" when you hear them, but you resolve to tell them in the pub the first chance you get. The twist is that Dara and Isy have absolutely no idea how these strange-but-true tales will unfold and we'll all be trying to figure it out together - or Dara and Isy will just go off on funny flights of fancy that are tangentially related to the story.
Producer: Laura Grimshaw
The Skewer: The 2024 Election Special
The Skewer: The 2024 Election Special
Fresh from a BAFTA nomination, the multi-award winning The Skewer burrows its way into the 2024 General Election, rounding it all up like a satirical sheepdog barking at a specially commissioned double-length episode, and cutting through all the noise.
Producer: Jon Holmes
Jon Holmes Says The C-Word
In 2023, Jon Holmes was diagnosed with cancer – which came as a bit of a surprise because, quite frankly, he was far too busy for all of that nonsense. After a very odd, intense, unexpected, ridiculous year, Jon realised that men don’t tend to talk openly about the preposterous indignity of dealing with cancer. So he decided he would, with other men who are going through it, or who’ve been through it.
Here – inevitably – comes his new chatty podcast.
Across the series, Jon will be joined by the comedians Stephen Fry, Mark Steel, Richard Herring, Matt Forde and Eric Idle, actors Colin McFarlane and Ben Richards, rock star and The Alarm frontman Mike Peters, and journalists Jeremy Langmead, Nick Owen and Jeremy Bowen. Jon and his guests will demystify all things cancer in raw, honest, difficult, often absurd and – yes – funny detail, from fingers up the bum to blood tests via biopsies, surgery, catheters, stomas, feeding tubes, penis pumps (no, really) and incontinence pads.
Producer: Laura Grimshaw
We Forced A Bot To Write This Show
Artificially Stupid comedy. We forced Artificial Intelligence to digest massive amounts of human media and then write its own versions. Everything from The One Show, Game of Thrones, Friends, Songs of Praise and more via movies, fables, adverts, Shakespeare, poetry and, er, gardening tips (and much much more) are all forever ruined by technology. We take the scripts, push them word-for-word into the mouths of actors, and the result is absurdly, joyously - and then absurdly again - hilarious. This is the comedy that conclusively proves that AI is an absolute idiot.
Based on the book by Keaton Patti.
Producer / Director Jon Holmes
How To Prepare For Government
The Skewer: Three Twisted Years
How To Prepare For Government
As the 2024 General Election comes to an end and politicians and their aides turn their minds to who should serve in the Cabinet and where they'll sit in Downing Street, civil servants all over Whitehall are busy preparing for a new government. Ex-Deputy Cabinet Secretary Helen MacNamara and former Downing Street aide Cleo Watson speak to former officials and SpAds about access talks, policy implementation and the tiny details (fonts, sandwiches, mints) that make all the difference.
For BBC Radio 4
Producer: Eliane Glaser
PIllar of Salt
The Skewer: Three Twisted Years
How To Prepare For Government
From the makers of the Moral Maze and The Skewer, this is the story of our time viewed through a cracked retrospectoscope. Featuring a host of recognisable voices, it examines society’s ethical and moral conundrums via bogus talking heads, fake archive footage, and made-up news broadcasts, as we chart everything that went wrong.
Some of the tape is damaged, but what remains is played out because the budget won’t stretch to repairing it. Put together in haste by a BBC producer decades from now and narrated by Michael Buerk, Pillar of Salt looks back over the shoulder of the intervening years and shines a light on why and how everything crumbled into dust.
A BBC Audio North Production in association with unusual.
Producers: Jon Holmes / Dan Tierney
The Skewer: Three Twisted Years
The Skewer: Three Twisted Years
The Skewer: Three Twisted Years
BAFTA NOMINATED TV DEBUT
FOR AWARD-WINNING SATIRE
After three years on air and after winning Gold for Best Comedy at the Radio Academy Aria Awards three years running, Jon Holmes’s satirical Radio 4 comedy The Skewer twists its way onto the screen for the first time., and finds itself nominated for a Bafta in the process.
The Skewer: Three Twisted Years is an experimental short film that revisits some of the key political and news moments from the last three years with a unique visual interpretation of the show’s critically acclaimed sharp, nightmarish style.
Shortlisted in the 2024 British Comedy Guide Awards for Best TV Sketch Show
Produced and Directed by Jon Holmes
other stuff we've thrown together
How to Win a Campaign
Sports Strangest Crimes | Pantani: The Death of a Pirate
Sports Strangest Crimes | Pantani: The Death of a Pirate
A five part series in which former Downing street strategist and adviser to Boris Johnson, Cleo Watson investigates the dark arts of political campaigning. Guests include Dominic Cummings and Craig Oliver,
Writer / Presenter: Cleo Watson
Producer: Eliane Glaser
Sports Strangest Crimes | Pantani: The Death of a Pirate
Sports Strangest Crimes | Pantani: The Death of a Pirate
Sports Strangest Crimes | Pantani: The Death of a Pirate
When Italy’s greatest cyclist is mysteriously found dead, sensational allegations of mafia involvement see the world of cycling collide head on with the murky underworld of organised crime. For BBC Radio 5 Live's Sports Strangest Crimes brand, Hugh Dennis narrates this ten part series.
Presenter: Hugh Dennis
Writer / Producer Katie Sayer
Amber Jolt: Truth Hunter
Sports Strangest Crimes | Pantani: The Death of a Pirate
Jon Holmes: Generation Shame
From writer Bill Dare genuine investigative journalism meets podcast spoof as Truth Hunter Amber Jolt (Rosie Holt) goes after Amazon. Involved quite a lot of lawyers.
Jon Holmes: Generation Shame
Jon Holmes: Generation Shame
Between 1949-1976, 185,000 babies of unmarried mothers were put up for adoption in England & Wales, many by force. Jon Holmes investigates whether he was
one of them.
Produced by BBC Studios in association with unusual for Radio 4's File on Four strand.
Absolute Radio Pirates
For one day only on Friday 12th August Absolute Radio 60s presents Absolute Radio Pirates! A day celebrating the music and personalities of the pirate radio stations of the 1960s 55 years after they were brought to an end.
To mark the anniversary, Absolute Radio Pirates combines new interviews with archive broadcasts - and loads of great music - to tell the real story of the pirates, their love of music and the move into illegality.
With Tony Blackburn, Johnnie Walker, and archive from (among others) John Peel, Kenny Everett, and Tommy Vance.
Made with the assistance of the
Carbon Lifeforms
A eco-comedy hybrid magazine show as comedian Jon Long teams up with scientist Dr Tara Shine that emits entertainment and education as they aim to (carbon) capture all things climate.
No Platformed
No Platformed
No Platformed
Three members of staff, one dysfunctional railway station, zero passengers. Brand new comedy that drives a train through sitcom-land via a platform crowded with big name cameos, absurd goings-on, and very silly jokes.
Sitcom written by Gareth Ceredig. Starring Geoff McGivern, Tim Downie, and Alexandra Mardell.
with Olivia Williams, Tracy Ann Oberman, Hugh Dennis, Rufus Jones
Slaving Away
No Platformed
No Platformed
Sitcom for Audible Originals
Meet Miranda, happy-go-lucky single girl who just happens to be a dominatrix with a dungeon in her flat. Sure she's got to whip clients for money, but she's also got the hoovering to do. Stars Miranda Kane, Hugh Dennis, Richard Herring, Jon Holmes, Kevin Eldon., Anthony Head and more....
Slaving Away continues to top Audible's download chart.
Unsafe Space
No Platformed
Unsafe Space
New series for 2023 BBC Radio 4
Diversity of thought, though provoking debate and comedy in the unsafe space.
Following a successful broadcast pilot, Unsafe Space returns for a full series in 2023.
Featuring (among many others) Simon Evans, Andrew Doyle, Billy Bragg, Owen Jones, Rosie Holt, Eeshan Ackbar, Graham Linehan, Zuby, Jake Yapp, Larry & Paul, April Reign and David Lammy MP.
Rockanory
Giggle in a Gallery
Unsafe Space
Shaun Keaveny narrates apocryphal rock n'roll tales of debauchery in Absolute Radio's first ever scripted comedy.
Also stars Jake Yapp, Alasdair Beckett King, Naomi McDonald, Alex Sievewright
Original music: Jake Yapp, Nick Bosworth
2002 New York Festival Award Winner for 'Best Writing' and 'Best Comedy'
2022 Radio Academy Award Nominee for Best Comedy
Made with the assistance of the
Lost Voices
Giggle in a Gallery
Giggle in a Gallery
We recently worked with the charity Pancreatic Cancer UK on a project called 'Lost Voices', creating a soundscape from the voices of celebrities, musicians, and Hollywood stars that have died from pancreatic cancer. People diagnosed with the disease usually die within 3 months, and we wanted to help 'break through the silence' by raising awareness - and money!
Giggle in a Gallery
Giggle in a Gallery
Giggle in a Gallery
We created besoke audio guides
(narrated by Hugh Dennis) for the
Turner Contemporary art gallery
in Margate, Kent.
Galleries and museums are constantly looking for ways to engage new audiences, which is where we stepped in a brand new audio guide.
“A lot of people are put off art galleries because they think of art as a very high-brow subject which can only be enjoyed in a very serious and intellectual way. It isn’t, it is there to be enjoyed by everyone, and I hope a slightly irreverent gallery guide might help change that perception.”
Hugh Dennis
(Outnumbered, Mock the Week,
The Now Show)
Half The Money Each
Between The Ears: Noise
Advertising Week Europe
Two Part Documentary for Absolute Radio
A commercial tie-in with e-One, for the cinema release of 'Stan and Ollie', comedian Jo Brand tells the story of the double act.
Features interviews with Steve Coogan, John C Reilly, director Jon C Baird, Trevor & Simon, Steve Punt, Mel Hudson, Jon Culshaw and comedy writers Jason Hazeley and
Joel Morris.
Advertising Week Europe
Between The Ears: Noise
Advertising Week Europe
Live event at Bafta, Piccadilly
We worked with Global to write and produce a live event at Bafta in front of 200 industry bigwigs as part of Advertising Week Europe.
Written and directed by Jon Holmes it starred Debra Stephenson, Terry Mynott and Mitch Benn, accompanied by their takes on Madonna, Dame Judi Dench, Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, David Attenborough, Henry VIII, Paul McCartney, and ,er, the Caramel Bunny,
Between The Ears: Noise
Between The Ears: Noise
Between The Ears: Noise
For BBC Radio 3, A sonic trip through our on-hold, tick-box, automated world, which turns bureaucracy into art and music.
Producers: Eliane Glaser and Jon Holmes Composer: Neil Luck Performers: Patricia Auchterlonie (soprano), Tom Jackson (saxophone), Rebecca Burden (cello) Sound Design: Tony Churnside and Jon Holmes. Readings: Hazel Holder
Jon Holmes's: Bangers Mashed
As part of Radio 2's festive line-up, The Skewer's Jon Holmes took to the turntables with a Boxing Day special celebrating the art of the musical mashup.
Turn it up to 11 and marvel at the magic of mash-ups like ABBA vs. Van Halen – ‘Super Jumper’, Adele vs. Daft Punk – ‘Something About The Fire’, and Coldplay vs. Oasis – ‘Don't Look Back At Yellow’.
With guests Ros Atkins, Zoe Ball, Sara Cox, Jeremy Vine, Ken Bruce, Scott Mills, Rylan, and more
Presenter Jon Holmes
Producer: Heather Davies
Cold Case Crime Cuts
The The One Show Show
Cold Case Crime Cuts is a spoof true crime podcast – but where the ‘crimes’ investigated are those that have been committed in songs. (But without ever referencing the fact that they’re songs.)
"A pin-sharp parody of US true crime podcasts,"
Winner: New York Festival 2022
Winner: British Podcast Awards 2022
Winner: Radio Academy Awards 2022
Nominee: 2022 Rose D'or
Best Comedy Podcast
The The One Show Show
The The One Show Show
Hit podcast that adopts the forensic approach some take to analysing high-end box set television, and applies to the ultimate disposable TV: the BBC’s flagship light magazine programme The One Show.
A deep dive into TVs shallowest show.
Jon Holmes, Marc Haynes and guests including Fi Glover, Jay Rayner, Peter Baynham, and many more
"A joy" popbitch
Welcome To The Neighbourhood
Welcome To The Neighbourhood
Comedian Jayde Adams and guests dive into the feisty world of community apps and messageboards, sifting through the angry neighbourhood bins to find disgruntled comedy gold.
for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4
Jeremy Vine: Agony Uncle
Welcome To The Neighbourhood
Hugely popular comedy for BBC Radio 2. Jeremy Vine (as played by Lewis MacLeod) plays agony uncle to any number of celebrities who phone him up for advice during his show, while the records are on.
Anne Frank's Trees
Anne Frank's Trees
Documentary for Holocaust Day
for BBC Radio 4
Presented by Michael Rosen
Slow Radio Comedy
Anne Frank's Trees
Experimental sound-art-meets-comedy as comedians, poets, and presenters swap the stage for the great outdoors, and perform - more slowly - with nature as their audience.
Recorded on location in binaural stereo for BBC Radio 4
Starring:
Simon Evans, Natasha Hodgson, Lemn Sissay and Poppy & Rubina from the Brown Girls Do It Too podcast.
some of the nice people we work with
