In and Out of the Kitchen - Review - 21 Jan 13

A picture of Miles Jupp I borrowed
from the BBC Website

I have very few regrets, except putting a "coins into piggy-bank" sound effect over a recording of a poem by Spike Milligan.

He had given a beautiful reading of "Pennies from Heaven" which I had the audacity to think I could illuminate. I was probably wrong - it was too "on the nose" (snout?) and the programme would have been better without it.

No one seemed to mind, though Roger the engineer gave me an "are you sure" sort of look - it was only one of the 40 or so poems - and, bizarrely, said cassette is still on sale via via Amazon for $551.19. World's gone mad.

Anyway, sound effects can make, or mar, a radio production and this week's "pick" (with one notable exception) uses them superbly.

Today I listened to the first episode of the second series of Miles Jupp's superb, In and Out of the Kitchen. A total joy. I shall not burden you with plot - if truth be told there isn't a great deal to burden you with - but the production, writing and especially performances make this a real highlight.

Well, how would YOU illustrate
sound effects?

I don't mean to get hung up on the FX (too late!) but there are two (maybe more, doesn't matter for now) "schools" of thought: The Archers school where the listener might believe the action is really taking place in a pub / field / Jazzer's bedroom sections; and the more impressionist school where the effects are counter-realistic, but create atmosphere, pace and (in this case) comedy.

Producer Sam Michell has - notably in the recipe bits - added effects with such grace and rhythm that it feels almost like a musical accompaniment.  As a listener, you might not even notice them (sometimes that's the point, too) but they add considerably to the overall enjoyment of the programme.

Miles Jupp's performance as Damien Trench is superb (he'll not thank me for reminding you he was Archie the Inventor in nursery edu-soap Balamory) - perhaps because he's not a million miles from Jupp himself: awkward, self-effacing and hilarious. He's teamed with the hugely likeable Justin Edwards (both, co-incidentally, alumni of topical comedy sketch show Newsjack on BBC Radio 4 Extra).  They're the straightest gay couple outside Ambridge and their scenes together are witty and engaging, but too few.

This episode is fairly conventionally structured with an A-plot conceding a restaurant review and the hunt for a suitable lodger: "Am I really going to have to use the phrase guest bedroom?" The B-plot concerns Trench's literary agent, from whom I suspect we can expect to hear considerably more as the series progresses.

It's a scene with the agent that, if forced, I might take minor issue with - and it's sound effect related! In a script filled with originality, and a scene with some beautifully observed drunken dialogue, the section with expletives obscured by car horns and police sirens, felt rather out of place. Easy jokes more readily at home on a topical comedy sketch show, perhaps.

When you're enjoying the world created by radio you can forgive it a momentary lapse (we've all had them) and I enjoyed this world very much.  Did I mention it was also very, very funny?

IN AND OUT OF THE KITCHEN can be heard on BBC Radio 4, 
Mondays at 1130am from 21st January and via the BBC Radio iPlayer.

Click HERE for the programme's page on the Radio 4 website.

I'd be delighted to hear your views on the programme - or any aspect of radio - in the section below.

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