Ed Reardon's Week

"Ed Reardon's Week" is a sitcom on BBC Radio 4. It concerns the story of a curmudgeonly 50-something writer described in the show's publicity material as an "author, pipesmoker, consummate fare-dodger and master of the abusive email". The names of two central characters, Ed Reardon (played by Chris Douglas) and Jaz Milvane (played by Philip Jackson), are references to the characters Edwin Reardon and Jasper Milvain, who appear in George Gissing's novel "New Grub Street", which is set in the hack-literary London of the late nineteenth century, although Edward was revealed to be his given name in the second episode of the third series and Milvain is referred to as Jaz.

The central conceits of the comedy are that Ed lives in genteel poverty with his cat, Elgar, scraping a living as a hack by working through commissions for coffee table books such as "The Brands Hatch Story" and "Pet Peeves", a book of celebrity pet anecdotes. Much of this work comes through his agent Felix (John Fortune) and Felix's assistant Ping (Sally Hawkins, played by Barunka O'Shaughnessy in the second and fifth series), an archetypal Sloane Ranger who rejects his amorous advances.

The series is written by Chris Douglas and Andrew Nickolds, and produced by Simon Nicholls and Dawn Ellis (fourth and fifth series).

Ed's literary background

Ed considers himself a serious writer but the evidence is lacking. His one and only novel, "Who Would Fardels Bear?", was published in the 1970s, and was "converted" into a film ("Sister Mom") by Ed's friend, Jaz Milvane (played by Philip Jackson). Since the plot was relocated from Oldham to California and the lead role was taken by Sally Field, the movie's faithfulness to the novel is in some degree of doubt. Milvane is a successful British Hollywood film director in the mould of Tony Scott or Adrian Lyne. Ed's only other screen credit is a 1982 episode of the BBC wartime drama, "Tenko" ("Escape from the Bamboo Noose") and, based on the evidence provided in the drama so far, this may well be his only other non-coffee-table-book project.

Books

* "Who Would Fardels Bear?"
* "Jane Seymour's Household Hints"
* "The Brands Hatch Story"
* "Pet Peeves" (publisher: Sow's Ear)
* "Nigel Mansell's Love Poetry"
* "Pet Peeves 2"

Radio

* "The Amazing True Story Of The South Tring Bubble"
* "The South Tring Bubble" (Reworking of the above for Hemel Sound)

Ed's family

Ed has a son and a daughter, Jake and Eli, who make occasional appearances. An insight into Ed as a father is given in "The Operations", where Jake complains: "that's all we ever got from you... a sarcastic one-liner followed by a 'now leave me alone to sink into drunken stupor of self-loathing."

Ed's father, Sidney, made an appearance in the episode "Dad". Appearing just as bad-tempered and impatient as Ed, Sidney demonstrated more understanding of popular culture by being familiar with the children's television programme "Dick and Dom in da Bungalow". He emigrated to Australia for tax reasons with a new partner, following Ed's failed attempt to secure his inheritance.

Ed's current life

Ed teaches a screenwriting class, held weekly at the local sports centre. This adult education group spend a lot of time giving him advice and making comments about his general lack of achievement, between complaints about being forced to watch his "Tenko" episode endlessly. Ed also plays in a Dixieland jazz band with his more successful friends, his instrument of choice being the jug. In the first episode Jaz sits in with them on trumpet, making Ed's contribution seem anaemic by comparison.

Ed has lived in a one-bedroom flat in Berkhamsted ever since he sold his London home after a messy divorce, with his cat Elgar. This is described as "living at the cutting edge, or above "The Cutting Edge", to be accurate, a flat over a hairdresser's."

Ed was seen heading into surgery for coronary bypass (necessitated by his lifelong affair with "beer and baccy") at the end of the second series, with Felix on the one hand, abetted by Jaz, pushing him to start on a new novel for Jaz to film ("Put in lots of cricket" says Felix) while Ping is urging him to commit to "Pet Peeves 2", the fee for which will be needed to pay his hospital bill.

At the end of the fourth series Ed became involved with the popular novelist Mary Potter (Sally Grace), spending several nights a week together by the start of the fifth series.

Humour

Much humour comes from Ed's rants and inability to stop himself getting carried away in his angry tirades, often triggered by learning that somebody younger than him is proving more successful (such as the author of "Eats, Shoots and Leaves", Lynn Truss; one tirade finds Ed receiving several copies of the book as gifts for his birthday and working how much in royalties Truss will have received because of the book sales).

Writers

Ed Reardon is played by actor Chris Douglas, who also co-writes the series with Andrew Nickolds.

As of January 2008, four series of six programmes have been broadcast. A spin-off book was published in November 2005. A fifth series began on Radio 4 on Monday 6th October 2008.

Awards

Ed Reardon's Week has been voted Best Radio Programme by the Broadcasting Press Guild at their 32nd Annual Television and Radio Awards.

Episode list

Series 1 was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January and February 2005. Series 2 ran from December 2005 until January 2006, Series 3 from 15 December 2006 to 19 January 2007 and Series 4 from November 2007 to December 2007. Series 5 began weekly transmission on Radio 4 on Monday 6th October 2008 at 11:30am. Each episode is available as streaming audio over the internet, through the BBC's Listen Again service, for one week after broadcast.

Series 1 was repeated in August-September 2007 on BBC 7.

eries 1

eries 4

eries 5

Cast list

*Ed Reardon - Chris Douglas
*Harvey - Sean Lock
*Olive - Stephanie Cole
*Felix - John Fortune
*Frank - David Cann
*Steward - Paul Richard Biggin
*Cliff - Simon Greenall
*Ping (Pandora Ingleby-Thomas) - Sally Hawkins, series two and five: Barunka O'Shaughnessy
*Jaz Milvane - Philip Jackson
*Pearl - Rita May
*Lucy - Laura Solon
*Stan - Geoffrey Whitehead

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/edreardon.shtml Official BBC site]
* [http://epguides.com/EdReardonsWeek/ epguides.com's episode listing]