BBC Radio 4’s hostless comedy interview show, Chain Reaction, kicked off again today (18th Feb 2015) with Series 10 of the long standing baton passing chat-athon, which is a bit like a marathon, but with conversation replacing long distance running and with more of a relay style of delivery. As Adam Buxton closed the last episode of Series 9, being interviewed by Graham Linehan, he was back to start things off in the first episode of the new series, this time on the question side of the great Q&A divide.
The first episode aired at 6:30, with six weekly episodes planned in total for Series 10 going out every Wednesday at the same time. For anyone that hasn’t heard the radio show before, and couldn’t piece together our cryptic description above, the series has a rotating host and interviewee slot in each episode, with the interviewee going on to be the interviewer in the following show and getting to choose their interviewee in the process. Hopefully you’re with us so far.
For episode 1, Adam Buxton (Big Mix Tape), former 0.5 of the comedy duo that went into making The Adam And Joe Show, has elected to interview another bastion of all things great and good in comedy, Reese Shearsmith (Psychoville 2) of The League Of Gentlemen fame; not now silent singer! The two comedians discussed things like the correct pronunciation for the past conjugation of “to strive” and some of the thought process that went into making the very first episodes of The League Of Gentlemen.
It turns out to be a really candid interview, despite Adam’s relative brevity as the question master, and you get a real sense of the development of the some of the legendary characters that Shearsmith has been responsible for. It’s definitely funny, but more than anything it’s a great opportunity to find out more about some of the comedians that you love.
The second episode will see Shearsmith back in front of the BBC Radio 4 studio mic, pumping Bob Mortimer for information like he’s a carrier pigeon that’s been captured by the enemy and reluctant to relinquish its message. Episode 2 will be airing on the 25th February 2015 if you want to set yourself a reminder or write it on your Winterwatch 2015 wall calendar.
The good news for anyone like us that finds it difficult to keep to the constraints of radio schedules is that Chain Reaction Series 10 will be available on BBC iPlayer, so you’ll be able to watch it whenever you want to. You can also catch up on all of the previous series too, so if you want to get yourself into a Radio 4 listening hole this weekend you can fill your boots with everything from Kevin Bridges chatting it out with Frankie Boyle about Scottish things and Johnny Vegas interviewing Stewart Lee about his favourite primates, or something along those lines.
