"The Unbelievable Truth" article from the Guardian website
24/04/2007 00:00 GMT

Posted by lisa

"The Unbelievable Truth", a new comedy panel game devised by Graeme Garden and ISIHAC producer John Naismith, started its first full series yesterday (a pilot episode aired last year).  Graeme will appear in some episodes of the series.

The show airs on BBC Radio 4 on Monday evenings, with a repeat around noon on Sundays (check your listings for the exact start time, as the Sunday ones tend to vary by a few minutes).  The series can also be heard online at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy; each episode will be available for a week after broadcast via Listen Again.

The following article about the first episode in the new series appears on the Guardian's website


....Unbelievably: a new Radio 4 Panel Show
By Ben Dowell / Radio 10:20am

Last night Radio 4 showcased its new kids on the panel show block - the show Unbelievable Truth hosted by David Mitchell and featuring a crop of young comedians including Marcus Brigstocke and Tony Hawks. Did you like it? Do you think it will give old favourites such as Just a Minute and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue a run for their money?

I say old favourites, but the show was devised by panel show veterans Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, long standing panellist and producer respectively of the anarchic R4 show I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue. But what was different about this show was that it appeared (at last) to be trying to give the young pups a panel show platform, something that may even last the decades that "Clue" and "Just a Minute" has been entertaining Radio 4 listeners.

Personally I thought it was a neat, if limited premise, ably performed by last night's panel of Frankie Boyle, Tony Hawks and Marcus Brigstocke (who seems to have a permanent berth on the station these days, though he's probably not as ubiquitous as Peep Show's David Mitchell).

The premise, in case you didn't catch it, sees each panellist deliver a lecture on a given topic (Elizabeth I, Cats, The Human Body, Morris Dancing..anything really), which must be entirely untrue, except for five unlikely facts... The job of their opponents is to challenge if they think they've detected an item of truth. Panellists lined up for this first series include Graeme Garden, Alan Davies, Jo Brand, Jeremy Hardy, Clive Anderson, Tony Hawks, Neil Mullarkey, Sandi Toksvig, and Marcus Brigstocke.

As I say, I thought it worked well. Mitchell was an assured and witty host. But there is a danger that the format, even with the entertaining asides, could feel a bit samey after a while. Clue is all over the place (joyously so) and Just a Minute (in which panellists have to keep talking on a subject without repetition or deviation for 60 seconds) may be a simple format but it benefits from the fact that the hothouse of each minute keeps all of the contestants on their toes, even when panellists such as Paul Merton are engaging in their fantastically absurdist flights of fancy.

Unbelievable Truth meandered a bit, maybe not enough, and it seemed a little too obvious to me to detect when they were lying and telling the truth.

But it's new. And shouldn't be strangled at birth. And at least comedy on Radio 4 is looking to the future - and away from the dark days of five or so years ago when all those 11.30pm programmes almost made one lose the will to live. And this could bed in nicely. Anyway. Enough 'Ands' from me. Over to you.