Gemma Arrowsmith's Sketched Out on Radio 4

GEMMA ARROWSMITH’S SKETCHED OUT
EPISODES 3 & 4

BBC RADIO 4, 6:30pm, THURSDAYS 6th & 13th OCTOBER 2022

with GEMMA ARROWSMITH, ADAM COURTING, TOM CROWLEY, CHIARA GOLDSMITH and SPECIAL GUEST ADAM FLEMING

At last, Empress of sketch comedy Gemma Arrowsmith has her own home on Radio 4, with her own name on it and everything, and you can visit right now! I was lucky enough to be invited to take up temporary residence there and I strongly recommend it. Gemma is a razor-sharp writer and an effortlessly magnetic lead, and performing alongside her and the rest of the cast was a total joy, even if it might not be showing on all of our faces in the photo at the top of this post. But this isn’t the first time I’ve been in one of Gemma’s shows! Last year, I was delighted to be asked to contribute voices to her Radio 4 half-hour special Gemma Arrowsmith: Emergency Broadcast (still available to listen to here on BBC Sounds) and was even more chuffed to be asked back for the series.

While Emergency Broadcast told the tale of Gemma being accidentally trapped in Broadcasting House during the Coronavirus lockdowns, this new series sees Gemma running free, over the moon to be commissioned for a full series and raring to go, only to discover that the powers that be have decided that she’s not famous enough to host. These bigwigs, embodied by media wonks Theo and Cleo, are bringing in big stars to play the main character ‘Gemma Arrowsmith’ and boost the show’s profile. In Episode 1, it was Paterson Joseph. In Episode 2, Dame Joanna Lumley! And in tonight’s Episode 3, it’s BBC Breakfast and Newscast presenter Adam Fleming, bringing current affairs gravitas to the difficult role of ‘Gemma’. Here’s a clip of exactly that:

But what awaits our hero in Episode 4…? You’ll have to wait until next week to find out! Or click on that link and read the blurb, which tells you what it is. Either way, make sure to catch up on the first three episodes, for some of the best sketch comedy you’ll hear in your span, mate. Gemma’s show is silly, scathing, joyful and furious, sometimes all at once, and most importantly, it’s bloody funny. It’s an honour to be part of it, not to mention a privilege to perform alongside my co-stars Adam Courting and Chiara Goldsmith, who are both enviably gifted comic performers. And while we’re at it, working for wizard producer Gwyn Rhys Davies was no chore, either. Gemma’s assembled a delightful, professional and side-splitting team around her, and from what I’ve heard so far, all the joy captured in the recording studio has made it to air, undiluted. Let’s just hope a second series gets commissioned. And that they’ll have me back! But for now, just make sure you get yourself sketched out at the next convenient opportunity.